


Reflections of Me

by PurpleChick



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, F/F, Family, Gen, Light Angst, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2018-11-14 00:43:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11196897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleChick/pseuds/PurpleChick
Summary: Still recovering from the Daxamite invasion and losing Mon El, Supergirl is across the country on a task, leaving National City temporarily vulnerable.  When a mysterious ship appears in the sky and sends down cryptic objects around the city, Alex and Hank go to investigate.  What they find is more than what they expected, and figure is spotted flying over the city, but the figure isn't Supergirl!





	1. Chapter 1

**AN** – It’s been awhile since I wrote anything, thanks to health issues, but hopefully I can hop back up on the horse, and ride again! This is my first _Supergirl_ fan fic attempt. Those that have read my other work can see if it stacks up to that.

Just a note, the story combines comics continuity with that of the TV show, most notably that all the Arrowverse characters are on the same Earth, like in the comics all the Earth One characters are on Earth One, characters like the original Huntress that’s Helena Wayne, the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, are on Earth Two, the Crime Syndicate is on Earth Three, and so on. Daxamites have the same powers Kryptonians do, with no weakness to Kryptonite, but with the weakness to lead, like in the comics. Other than that, its mostly TV show continuity. I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!

 

**_Supergirl: Reflections of Me_ **

 

**Chapter 1**

 

In the distance, in the skyline of National City, the sun rose, slowly and majestically, with a spectacle that could spark the inspiration of artist and scientist alike. Sunrises were particularly beautiful in National City. The air always seemed to sizzle with the first rays of the morning.

Since National City wasn’t prone to the perpetual gray murkiness of the skies over Los Angeles, due to a dramatically lesser degree of filthy smog, one could see for miles and miles from the top of a tall structure, where in Los Angeles you were lucky if you could see your hand in front of your face atop a tall building. 

Given it’s relative proximity to Los Angeles and San Francisco, most visitors were surprised by the quality of air and the clarity of the skies above, amazed at the fact that National City didn’t house factories belching out foul poisonous smoke every twenty feet like Los Angeles seemed to. The denizens, however, were accustomed to it, and actually took a moment or two to revel in the cleanliness of the city, as opposed to other places not far off.

In the oranges, yellows, blues and purples of the sunrise, the last light of the moon, and several stars, as well as Venus, were fading from sight as they often did as the sun took its place in the morning sky. This particular morning, however, a new star seemed to glimmer in the distance, despite the approaching brightness of the dawn. And it seemed to be drawing closer, rapidly, growing brighter as one gazed at it.

X

“What the hell _is_ that thing, Hank?” asked Agent Alex Danvers of the Department of Extranormal Operations, a secret government agency dedicated to safeguarding the Earth against extraterrestrial threats, of her boss, the Director of the DEO, a large dark skinned man who’s attention was currently fixed on the image of the glittering object in the morning sky.

He frowned and tapped a few controls, his gaze never coming away from the screen. “That, Agent Danvers,” he said finally, his voice a bit slower than normal, the mark of deep thought, “is an alien spacecraft, one I’ve never seen before.” Hank Henshaw, or more accurately J’Onn J’Onzz, a green Martian disguised as the human Hank Henshaw, rubbed his chin lightly.

A voice called out from a bank of computer terminals behind them. “But apparently the Kryptonians _had_ seen them before. They’ve got an extensive database of species known to them, and an impressive archive of their cultures, ships, planets, and so on, and _that_ oddly compelling beauty is among them.” Winn Schott, formerly an IT person at CatCo Worldwide Media, now an agent of the DEO, turned in his chair to regard his teammates.

“In fact, it’s the same species as our ‘friend’ Indigo was. It’s Coluan,” finished Winn quietly. He was regarding the database silently, letting that fact sink in to his fellow agents. 

Indigo, for all intents and purposes, was a humanoid living computer, capable of complete interfacing and integration with any computer system, from smart watches to computers, to cell phones, and using them to their utmost advantage. She had allied herself with the renegade Kryptonians intent on taking over the city, and eventually the world, that had been led by Kara Zor El’s, or Supergirl’s, aunt, and her uncle by marriage.

Once Kara’s Aunt Astra was dead, Non had stepped up the plan to take over National City they called Myriad, and Indigo had been at his side. In the final conflict of that dark time, he and Kara had found themselves locked in deadly combat, heat vision versus heat vision. 

When it was all said and done, Kara had triumphed, overpowering Non’s heat vision and burning his eyes completely out. He’d been confined within the DEO’s detention center ever since, along with the other rabid followers he and Astra had inspired. 

Indigo was believed to be dead, but given her ability to transform her body into living data, it was entirely possible that she could have found a device to transport herself to another place, and reassemble herself. However, she hadn’t resurfaced so far, so she was either lying low, or was really scattered over the desert.

Hank frowned, and nodded at Winn silently. He turned his gaze towards the brunette agent by his side. “Where’s Supergirl right now?” he asked, the tone of his voice quiet, but clear. If that ship was really Coluan, he knew that it would be serious trouble, if the other Coluans were anything like Indigo.

Though the inner circle of higher up agents knew both his secret, and Supergirl’s, there were many present in the command center that didn’t know that their boss was actually a green Martian, or that Supergirl was the adopted sister of their boss’s right hand, Alex Danvers. _And I’d like to keep it that way,_ thought Hank to himself. _Kara’s got enough on her plate right now, having just repelled the Daxamite invasion, and losing Mon El. She doesn’t need to worry about the rank and file agents learning that Supergirl is really Kara Danvers, anymore than I need anyone but Kara, Alex, Agent Vasquez, and Winn Schott knowing I’m really J’Onn J’Onzz, the Martian Manhunter._

Alex frowned, tilting her head to the side. “She’s escorting President Marsdin back to DC, I think. She said that with Air Force One having been destroyed by the Daxamite attack, she didn’t want to take any chances with her flying back with a private jet.” Alex studied Hank for a second before adding, “And with Superman being off world, helping some of the aliens that Lillian Luthor tried to ship off to find a suitable world they can live on in peace, that leaves very few heavy hitters on Earth, if this thing turns out to be a hostile.” 

“Umm, guys?” interjected Winn, his voice rising slightly in pitch as he nervously looked between them, and the screen in front of him. “That thing is deploying several drop capsules of some kind around the edges of the city, and judging by the radioactivity signatures, I don’t think they’re intergalactic ice cream trucks spreading good will…though that would be nice.”

Hank leaned over his shoulder to get a better look and his already grim expression rapidly degenerated into something far worse than grim. “No, its some sort of invasion scout operation, from the looks of it,” he said quietly. “And it promises anything but good will, I think. Those devices are all pretty big. We’re going to have to intercept, right now, and figure out what the hell that thing wants.”

Winn blinked a couple of times before looking up at Hank, who was still hovering over his shoulder, watching the screen intently. “Uh, shouldn’t we wait for Supergirl? Not only do those things not look particularly friendly, they look mean, like nasty mean, like ‘this is a job for Supergirl’ nasty mean.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to be around when the fireworks started, and he especially didn’t want his friends being crumpled up like a soda can by a professional wrestler or something, and thrown away, either.

“We can’t wait, Winn,” Alex replied, checking her sidearm, and rounding up other small equipment to take with her. “If it were just a case of her turning around and flying straight back, it would probably only take a few seconds, but it’s a lot more than that. She’s got a lot to take care of, making sure the President stays safe and gets back to the White House without incident.”

The young computer specialist knew this was true, yet it was reflex to hope for something like that. He knew Kara would save the day, if there was going to be trouble. He trusted in her the same way that he felt she trusted in him. After all, when she decided to use her powers, and let the world know there was another member of the House of El out there, helping people, he was the first person, besides hers and Alex’s parents, and her cousin, that she let know her secret. In his eyes, that was a huge amount of trust that he returned in kind.

Kara may be less experienced than her cousin, Kal El, but she was as powerful as he was, even more powerful than him he’d said himself recently, and if determination and hope, and never giving up, _ever_ were a living, breathing person, that person would be Kara Zor El, Kara Danvers, Supergirl. She would put her life on the line without so much as a blink if she thought it would save someone else. She’d do anything and everything necessary and far beyond to make sure that everyone else stayed safe, and without fear of imminent destruction. That’s just who the young Kryptonian was.

Hank gave Alex a nod, and she turned to the command center. “All advance teams, gear up and head for the choppers. We’re in the air in five,” she said, finishing up getting her own gear together, and heading for the hangar with Hank.

X

The morning sun was very bright, and from the altitude the choppers were at, it reflected off the glass walls of hundreds of skyscrapers and other monumental edifices that made up the large cosmopolitan city around them. They all found themselves squinting as they moved closer to the mysterious objects.

A team had been assigned to each chopper, and a particular object to find, observe and assess. There were far more objects than there were teams and choppers, so they spread out in equidistant positions, keeping contact via their com system. The objects were still indistinct, thanks to all the reflected sunlight, but they were closing fast.

As they neared their target, Hank and Alex struggled to see through the bright light at what they were approaching. The object appeared to be approximately fifty feet tall, and slightly oblong, almost like an egg. It sat open, like a box turned on its side. Near it were several bipedal shapes, gleaming in the sunlight. The apparently metal beings or constructs were approximately eight feet tall, and seemed to be creating some sort of perimeter, and herding people trying to flee the edges of the city back into it. The constructs, or whatever they were, were using brute strength and energy blasts of some sort to perform whatever function they were supposed to be doing.

“It’s like stumbling onto the set of a whacked out _Doctor Who_ episode,” breathed Alex quietly, not quite believing what she was seeing, though she knew she’d seen stranger things in her time at the DEO. She climbed out of the chopper, the alien pistol she’d picked up on Maaldoria, also called Slaver’s Moon, when they’d had to rescue Kara and Mon El from there, in hand and ready.

Hank chuckled without much humor, and replied, “Actually, I was thinking an odd episode of either _The Twilight Zone_ or _The Outer Limits_ myself.” Like Alex, he was armed, and had weapon at the ready. They both were making their way carefully from the chopper towards one of the apparent constructs, being very cautious along the way. Behind them, their team fell into formation, all prepared for hostile actions on the part of the constructs.

Now that they were getting closer, they could tell the beings were actually metal, but there were no discernable methods of connection. No bolts, rivets, or anything else that could be recognized as a connecting part to join one part with the other. The arms and legs were articulated with overlapping bands, which suggested extreme flexibility. Though there had been no doubt the things were alien in design and nature, the far advanced design of the things, not to mention their fluidity of motion and sheer size and mass, left no question as to their origin.

The constructs seemed to be busily blasting through the crust and mantle, as if cutting a chunk out of an apple or something. So far, they hadn’t seemed to take notice of the much smaller humans approaching them, weapons at the ready. Their dedication to their task was relentless, precise, and methodical. The Earth around the city was being excised in a very exacting manner. Even though there was no evidence of lifting, they seemed to be cutting through as if they were transplanting an orchid or something similar.

“It looks like they’re peeling National City away, like skin from an apple,” mused Alex as her forehead crinkled slightly as her brows drew closer together. “Only they’re not peeling it, they’re just separating it from the ground itself, it looks like. Now I’m really confused. Why come section off a city like making cookies with a cookie cutter?”

Before Hank could answer, a hollow sounding voice around them, only it wasn’t around them at all. “Perhaps the collective intelligence of your species is a millionth of a point higher than I originally estimated,” the voice said. “You seem to have deduced the actions my constructs are performing, even if it is a very basic and rudimentary deduction.”

Hank frowned and was obviously concentrating, whispering to Alex, “It’s a telepath. It…he…is in our heads, reading our thoughts, learning about us.” She could tell he was trying to block the alien presence in his mind, but it didn’t seem as if he was having the greatest of luck with that.

The voice, sounding oddly both organic and artificial, spoke into their minds again. “I would advise against attempting to block my probe, Martian. It would prove injurious to you, to be certain,” the disembodied presence said. “And I would certainly advise against doing so for you, human. Descent into madness would be the best case scenario if you attempted it.”

The agents all looked at each other, including Hank and Alex, an expression of bewilderment on their faces. Apparently, the rest of the team was hearing the voice the same as they were.

“Who… _what_ are you?” she finally asked, a hint of exasperation creeping into her voice. Her finger itched to pull the trigger on her most impressive weapon, to aim it at something, preferably the source of the voice in her head, and pull the trigger, and watch it fall down, or disintegrate, or whatever it might do under the power of the weapon.

The voice seemed annoyed as it continued, “The extremely primitive physical projectiles in your weapon would be less than useless against my constructs, Martian. I calculate a 0.1309553% chance you would survive an encounter with them, if you were to use that weapon against them. The odds are not in the least favorable, to use parlance you’re familiar with.”

Hank scowled and looked at his pistol, and the rifles being carried by the others as the voice continued, “As for your inquiry, human, my name is Vril Dox. I’m a scientist on my home planet of Colu. Or rather I was, before I waged a war on the Computer Tyrants of my world, and decided to undertake a most solemn mission. Do not think of resisting. It would be a waste of time. I am the only Coluan with a twelfth level intelligence, and for you to attempt so would be folly, at its best moment. I can, will and have formulated every possible permutation of resistance you are capable of mounting, both mentally and physically. The end result would remain constant.”

“You’re a barrel of laughs,” quipped Alex, catching Hank’s gaze a moment, and then returning to her visual sweep of the area. “So, what exactly is a ‘twelfth level intelligence,’ anyway? Is that something like a mage in World of Warcraft or something? You’re a twelfth level smart guy?” It was obvious to Hank that she was goading Dox, though he wasn’t sure what she was trying to accomplish by it, specifically.

There was a tone of something near amusement as the voice in their minds responded, “If you were to add the collective intelligence of your entire planet together as one rating, your people would, perhaps, reach a very low percentage of a sixth level intelligence, thanks to some rather quaintly intelligent minds that greatly raise your planetary average. The others of my world possess between a ninth to tenth level intellect, with rare exceptions reaching into an eleventh level intellect.”

“Alex,” hissed Hank in a quiet, warning tone, putting his hand on her arm. “Don’t antagonize Dox. He’s an unknown quantity, and he’s decidedly going to stand a better chance than we are if this turns into a conflict. Stand down.”

She gave Hank a look that he recognized, just before she stepped forward three confident, sure footed paces, leveled her weapon at the closest construct and fired. “Let’s see what sort of odds you lay on a Maaldorian laser pistol thingamajiggy, and how likely your little battery powered joy toys are to survive _that_.”

“You humans are truly an insignificant, but impudent, lot,” the voice of Vril Dox said. As his thought was connecting to Alex, Hank and the others’ minds, the construct that Alex shot at showed signs of scorching, black sooty places on the chrome like silver, but no visible damage beyond that.

As quick as a thought, the construct swung its large metallic hand, and struck the agent, sending her flying forcefully through the air in a very high arc as if she’d just fallen from the top of the CatCo building downtown. If she hit anything, or fell to the ground, she’d be little more than human flavored ketchup, she knew.

A scream poured from her throat as thick as maple syrup as her now very bruised body sailed through the National City skyline. That sudden lurch in the pit of your stomach when you know you’re about to be hit by a car, or run over a tree, or not beat the train hit her hard. Kara wasn’t anywhere around to catch her, so she knew she was about to die.

Though she always tried to hide it, the fear that imminent death brings on in most was surging its way through her mind and body. She flailed in the air like a rag doll, hoping that desperate, irrational hope that she’d catch something, or fall onto something that would save her life. But no such thing was happening. She was soaring between skyscrapers, glass, steel and concrete sure to catch her no matter where she ended up at the end of her flight.

As she finally started to fall, after she hit the apex of the arc she was on, there was a loud noise, like a sonic boom. Before she could blink, and before the sound of her prolonged scream had reached the end of her breath, she felt strong arms like steel catch her and carry her quickly straight towards the roof of a building, rather than down towards the traffic laden streets below.

Alex felt her feet touch a solid surface, the roof of a very tall building, and she instantly bear hugged the person that had caught her. It obviously wasn’t Superman, because while as strong, the person was more feminine feeling than masculine. 

“Oh, thank God you made it back just in time, Kara,” she gasped out, as she opened her eyes to fix on the face of her sister. “I didn’t think you’d be back from DC for another… _Kara???_ ”

Her eyes raced over the face of her savior, and it definitely looked quite a bit like Kara, only maybe ten years or so older, and filled out more, _a lot more_ , in the womanly charms department. Her hair wasn’t much different, but a bit shorter. She was wearing what looked like a long sleeved white leotard, but without the stockings over her muscular legs. There was a large, circular breast window cut out on the front, so a very generous portion of her more than ample bosom was revealed, but not nearly enough to be indecent, but plenty to ignite the feverish wild dreams a teenager might have, though. She had on blue gloves, and blue pirate boots, the familiar red cape, but held on by two large golden disks with a golden rope between them. 

Kara but not Kara was looking at her in shock, and her expression quickly went from dumbfounded shock to anger, faster than a speeding bullet. “Who the hell _are_ you? And how do you know that name? Where did you hear it?” the woman who looked very, very much like an older version of her sister all but shouted, and held up a blue gloved fist, not threatening to hit her, but in reining in anger, it seemed.

Alex struggled to find her voice. The day just kept getting weirder and weirder, and it was like an amusement park ride that you wanted to get off of, but it never stopped. Finally, blinking rapidly, she gave three false starts before she finally managed to get out, “Kara, its _me,_ its Alex. I’m your _sister!_ What the hell _happened_ to you? You were just twenty five this morning.”

Nothing was making any sense to either one of them. Silently, they stood staring at each other in dumbfounded disbelief, their minds racing, trying to make sense of it all. The older Kara’s face didn’t lose its angry scowl, but confusion softened it quite a bit.

“I don’t _have_ any brothers or sisters, not on Krypton, not with the human family I lived with when I was younger. So, I’ll ask you again, who the hell are you, and why are you talking crazy, saying I was ten years younger this morning, and that you’re my sister?” she demanded, her voice losing the harshness but not its angry edge.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Supergirl: Reflections of Me_ **

 

**Chapter 2**

 

“Alex!” yelled Hank as Alex went sailing through the air like a rocket, propelled by the force of the construct’s metallic hand, which swept her aside as if she were a gnat. The rest of the team were uncertain, glancing back and forth between the constructs and their Director.

“Get back to the chopper,” he said gruffly, readying his weapon again. “I’ll meet up with you at Headquarters in a couple of hours.” The team nodded, and started pulling back as ordered. They were sure he was going to search for Agent Danvers, and he wouldn’t stop until he found her.

As the chopper took off, the Martian made his way through the empty cars, and debris the constructs had made in the process of cutting through the earth around the city. When he was sure he couldn’t be seen, his body glowed red and orange, the outward appearance seeming to almost melt and reform into a much different shape. Revealed in his true state, the Martian Manhunter, tall, muscular, and determined leaped into the air, taking flight. His eyes scanned the landscape around him as he flew. He had to find Alex.

X

The two women continued to stare at each other for long seconds, and the muscular and apparently older version of Kara’s words still rung in the air. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The more she looked at the woman, the more she knew that this woman _was_ Kara, just not the Kara she knew. There was more experience on her face and in her voice, and a presence that demanded respect and attention. Her beauty hadn’t diminished in the time it’d taken her to age from when she last saw her sister that morning, and whatever had happened to this woman standing before her now.

_She doesn’t just look like Kara, she_ is _Kara. Is she from the future? I’ve heard Kara’s friend Barry talk about time travel and such with her, and since Kara can move nearly as fast, if not exactly as fast, as Barry can, maybe this Kara came back for some reason? The question is what? And why wouldn’t she remember me? Has something changed her past to where I died, or maybe she was taken in by a different family?_ Thousands of questions raced through Alex’s mind as she tried to figure out the best way to answer.

Finally, she pushed her hair back from her face where it was blowing around in the wind and fixed the older woman’s eyes with her own. “My name is Alex, Alex Danvers. I’m the daughter of Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers,” she began, hoping some detail would get through to the reflection of her sister on the roof with her.

“The scientist husband and wife? The ones that helped your Kal El understand his powers when he was younger?” the imposing woman asked. The sharpness of her expression and voice were softer, but still anything a universe away from gentle.

She nodded, still pushing her hair away, and stopped dead in her tracks. “Yes, that’s th—wait. You said, ‘ _your_ Kal El?’ What do you mean by that?” Her mind was once more racing, thoughts flying through her mind like Kara zipping across the country in a race against time. The odd statement had hit her like a steel bar.

“I meant your version of Kal El,” the woman replied, strongly, but not tersely this time. “My cousin Kal L was much older than the one you know.” She seemed to almost be looking into a far away place in her head than focused on the then and there.

The woman’s very tone suggested that her cousin was dead, and her voice softened as she replied to the woman so much like, yet so different from, her sister. “Your cousin…he’s…gone?” Alex had noticed to a very, very slight, but discernable difference between how she said “Kal El” and “Kal L.” So slight that if she wasn’t accustomed to hearing Kara refer to Clark by his Kryptonian name, she may never have caught the difference.

The older Kara nodded softly, and cast her eyes out over the city for a long moment, and then back to Alex. “Yes, several years ago. He died, beaten to death by a crazed, young Kryptonian madman, and drew his last breath in my arms. We didn’t always agree on everything, but he was my family, my blood. Agreed or not, I always loved and respected him.” Her voice was quiet, and all at once, her face changed as if dropping a mask over it.

“I’m so sorry…I didn’t know,” Alex fumbled, trying to find a way to express what she was feeling at that moment, the empathy she was feeling for this older version of Kara before her.

Before the older Kara could speak, a deep voice came from the side of the roof, “There you are, Alex. You’re safe, thankfully. Thank you for saving her.” Alex knew he was talking to the other woman, obviously, but he didn’t seem familiar with her either, so maybe she wasn’t going crazy after all. The Martian landed, and stepped closer to the pair.

“You’re welcome, both of you. I realize I neglected to say so earlier. Alex rattled me by calling me ‘sister.’ But she’s okay.” Her eyes moved over the form of J’Onn J’Onzz a moment, and had a look of realization on her face. “You must be the Martian that Fate speaks of so often,” she said finally.

The Martian nodded and bowed lightly, his gaze coming back up to her face again, glancing at Alex only a second. “My name is J’Onn J’Onzz,” he said, letting a light breath pass his lips. “I’m well acquainted with Doctor Fate. I’m not acquainted with you, however. It’s good to meet you in any case.”

“And in case I didn’t say it before, thank you,” Alex breathed, wondering what was about to happen. She’d heard of a Doctor Fate, in passing, perhaps once or twice, but never heard him discussed, not even by J’Onn.

The buxom woman shakes her head in silent dismissal of the need for thanks. She looked at both of them and then said quietly, “My name is Kara Zor L, and I’m Kryptonian. I’m just not from your Krypton, and until a few years ago, I lived on another Earth. Humans have another name for me, though. They call me Power Girl. And its good to meet you. Now, while we’ve been chatting, Brainiac has been furthering his plans, and we have to stop him before National City, and later other cities, are beyond saving.”

Alex, confused, looked between Power Girl and J’Onn. “Who or what is Brainiac?” she asked, already feeling a headache coming on, and she hadn’t even asked any of the million or so more questions that popped into her head about all this.

Power Girl smiled grimly, and nodded towards the large ship drawing closer. Its bulbous shape closely resembled an alien skull, as it started preparations to move to a specific position. “The one who controls all these constructs, that controls that ship, that plans to rip the world to pieces and assimilate every scrap of information he can about us, and then destroy us. The one responsible for all this, a power hungry, mad Coluan named Vril Dox.”

Alex’s stomach sunk a bit more at the description, and shook her head softly. _Well, that’s a pretty good way to ruin a perfectly good day._

X

“…the panic in National City is continuing to mount as the strange robots, or whatever they may be, outside the city continue to work at whatever their goal is, chopping through the ground all the way around the city. We’ll speak with our correspondent on the ground in National City after this break, and see what’s happening up close,” said the reporter on the TV that the President had just turned on.

At the mention of trouble, especially trouble in National City, Kara whirled her head towards the screen. “Oh, Rao,” she breathed in shock before turning back to President Marsdin in a near panic. “I’m really sorry, but I have to go. I can’t stand by and let this happen.”

“You’ve done more than enough, Supergirl. Please, get back to National City and stop this before nationwide panic sets in,” replied the President, shooing her out of the oval office rapidly.

“I’m really sorry, Ma’am, but thank you for understanding,” Supergirl replied. The words had barely silenced in the air when she flew out of the open window faster than the eye could follow, and as she rose higher into the air, a loud boom sounded across the city.

X

Seconds later, Kara slowed down to a more reasonable speed as she approached the city limits of National City. She’d wasted no time flying back, and with good reason, she thought. Surrounding the city at regular intervals were large pods of some sort, with several silver constructs near them, looking as if they were ripping up the ground around the city like pulling up a rug.

There was the sound of alien weapons fire, and loud, reverberating clangs. A flash of green and blue registered in her peripheral vision, and she knew J’Onn was busily hammering away at one of those things, whatever they were. The robot, or whatever it was, was taking damage, but it didn’t appear to be out of the fight just yet.

She immediately flew to where her friend was, and with a loud roar, punched the construct so hard, its head ripped off and flew out into the bay, making a large splash. J’Onn gave her a thumbs up, and she immediately turned her attention to the next of the lumbering artificial beings that were so busily trying to uproot her city.

She sighted the next closest one, and her eyes burned with powerful energy, making her eyes glow and twin rays of heat and light shot from them to start ravaging the surface of the robot’s body. Its skin was incredibly strong, but it was slowly being pared down.

Out of nowhere, another twin lances of heat vision blasted into the same robot, giving it peril on both sides. Kara smiled excitedly, and breathed out, “Kal, you made it back!” She had hoped her cousin would have been done and made it back to Earth by now, but she hadn’t been sure.

The robot’s upper body was glowing a bright red, when suddenly there was a loud, wordless roar, and the sound of an invulnerable fist smashing into its head, crumpling it like paper, and the force pushed its head down to its hips, ripping the body in two along the way. The glow around the assailant’s eyes faded, and instead of Kal El, there was a muscular blonde woman, dressed in a red cape, white body suit of some sort, with blue gloves and boots.

The mysterious figure flew straight at another, and another, the both of them destroying the things as quickly as they could get to them and beat them down until they were weak enough to die whatever death a robot might die.

The other woman, presumably Kryptonian or Daxamite, judging by her powers, seemed enraged, and fought with a deadly force and precision that, with her help, decimated the artificial beings’ numbers, while J’Onn and Alex took out others behind them.

Suddenly, the remaining robots stopped what they were doing, re entered their capsules, and flew back into the sky towards the strange skull shaped ship moving towards the center of the city. “Alex, J’Onn!” called out Supergirl, turning in mid flight. “I’m going to that ship and try and end this before it goes any further!”

Their voices echoed in her ears from the com system she wore, acknowledging her plan. As she sped towards the ship, the other woman also seemed intent on reaching it. In mere heartbeats, both women reached the ship, just in time for a green hued shield to spring up around the ship, having waited until precisely the moment they’d strike it, and find themselves flying across the city, stunned and weakened.

As the pair spun off dazed into the city, the ship rose, gained altitude and flew out of sight, though Alex and J’Onn both suspected that the telepath in that ship’s plans were far from over. They’d just gained a brief respite.

Kara spun, dazed, barely able to see anything, she felt so groggy and weak. The shield, or whatever it had been, must have been saturated with a very potent dose of Kryptonite radiation, that was the only explanation. She knew she was spinning out of control, but she couldn’t focus and concentrate enough to regain her bearings.

Kara began to black out, the blackness was closing from around the edges of her vision, and she felt feverish, but just before she blacked out, she felt arms catch her, and stop her out of control spin. She managed to breathe out a soft, “Thank you” before she fell into darkness.

X

The robots had fled, leaving Alex and J’Onn standing in the wake of where they’d been. The wreckage of their fallen metallic brothers lay still smoldering around them. Alex’s eyes had been glued to the sky, and saw when Supergirl and Power Girl had hit the shield and been thrown across the city. It hadn’t looked like either of them had been in that great a shape.

“Kara!” yelled Alex, panic beginning to rise quickly, as she scrambled to get clear of the wreckage around them. “J’Onn, we’ve got to find Kara! That was a Kryptonite shield, I know it was. She could be dead, or dying, that thing looked strong. We have to find her!”

“Alex, I know its hard but please, calm down,” J’Onn said, trying to soothe her even a tiny bit. He drew a long breath and let it out slowly, even as Alex nearly fell twice trying to get clear of the wreckage. “We’ll find her, I promise. But you’re not going to do her any good in a state of panic. We can’t afford to get sloppy, not now. Who knows when this Brainiac, or Dox, or whatever he calls himself, will come back, or what he has in place as far as backup plans?”

Alex seemed to calm some, though she was obviously still anxious, and probably not a little panicked at the moment. Whether she was or not, and J’Onn knew she had to be, she nodded, only a little shaky, and waited for J’Onn to come up with an alternative.

X 

Kara felt herself lowered to what felt like the ground, only it wasn’t grassy, and it wasn’t a street, but it was uneven, rocky, much like the area around where the DEO base had been in the desert, before it was moved into the skyscraper in the city. She could feel the breeze rushing past, and could hear the call of a hawk as it hunted for its prey. In a rush, she tried to sit up, but a firm hand held her to her position, lying on the ground.

“Easy, take your time,” said a voice that sounded very much like her own, but it was heavier, seemingly weighted down by some pain, or something else, but whatever it was, it had hardened the voice over the years. “The Kryptonite particles in that shield were pretty damned strong, quite lethal. They were strong enough that they sent me flying, so that’s saying something.”

Kara’s eyes opened, and blinked several times against the glare of the sun. The face of the blonde woman came into focus, and once it did, she gasped. She wasn’t expecting what she saw, even if she wasn’t sure of what she’d see. The eyes, the face, looking back at her was her own. There were extra years on the face, not enough to hide her beauty, only enough to make her seem more mature, more confident in what she must do. Even with that, she recognized her own face when she saw it.

“Who are…are you from the future?” she asked, still sounding dazed. Her head was pounding, a common enough reaction to Kryptonite. She leaned back against a rock and shifted slowly into a position that was more comfortable.

The older woman laughed quietly a moment and shook her head. “Not exactly, no. I’m from a parallel universe that doesn’t exist anymore…or at least it doesn’t exist the way it used to when it was my home. It was reformed several years ago, many things the same, but many different, as well. I’m the last survivor of the destruction of my universe, and I ended up here in yours, through more strange and unfortunate events than I can possibly describe.

“So, to answer the question you haven’t asked, yes, I’m Kara Zor L, and you are Kara Zor El, and I’m you, in a way.” She stopped, and just regarded Kara for a moment. Her voice, while not angry, had still been strong, hard edged, the voice of a woman not accustomed to having her word challenged.

Kara sat up straighter and held her forehead in her hand, wincing in pain for a moment. Her eyes searched the eyes of her reflection, more aged, more experienced, perhaps wiser, but definitely harder. The slight inflection difference between the speaking of their names wasn’t lost on Kara either. Since she had spoken Kryptonian since she was old enough to talk, she could easily hear the nuances in the pronunciation of each.

She rubbed her temples a moment, and finally looked up at her doppelganger again, a bit of confusion on her face. “Parallel universe? Like Flashpoint, you mean?” she asked, trying to make sense of it all. She’d heard Barry and a few other friends talk about alternate timelines, parallel universes, parallel dimensions and such, and she understood basically what each represented, but the true meat of knowledge about them wasn’t hers.

Power Girl’s brow wrinkled, tilting her head to regard her younger self. “What the hell is Flashpoint?” she asked, the edge on her voice a bit sharp. She wasn’t intending to sound harsh, but she knew it came out that way. She released a breath slowly, and tried to remind herself not to be so aggressive sounding. It was odd hearing a voice that was hers, but that wasn’t strengthened by that harsh edge, that commanding sounding voice that she’d learned to speak in many years ago.

Kara’s hand pushed back through her hair, and she frowned slightly. Power Girl got the impression, just from how the expression formed on her face, that she wasn’t accustomed to moving her face muscles like that. Supergirl looked up at her, and seemed genuinely confused. “Flashpoint is an alternate timeline, things were a little different there. The Flash went back in time to try to prevent something horrible, and he did…only it didn’t turn out the way he thought it would. Things that shouldn’t have changed did change, and things that should have changed didn’t turn out much differently. So subtle changes rippled across time, in both directions, and though he tried to set it right, it never was completely the way it’d been before.”

“If changes rippled subtly in both directions from that…that event, it could explain several things that never made sense to me before,” mused Power Girl, her mind racing over possibilities. “Time and space are two things that you should meddle with as little as possible. Bad, bad things happen when those two universal cosmic forces are tampered with.”

“Oh, I don’t disagree with you, not at all. In fact, I’m right there with you all the way…um, what should I call you? Obviously, I can’t call you Power Girl if we have to move around out of our suits in the city, especially around people that know me, or you. When we came up with a human name for me to use while I’m here, I use my own name and Alex’s last name. So I’m Kara Danvers, as far as any human is concerned,” Kara spoke rather rapidly, as if her mind were in a dozen different places at once. “And I think it would confuse people terribly if we went around calling each other Kara, and we have to figure out how we’d know each other…”

As Kara trailed off, Power Girl genuinely smiled for all of about five seconds. “You’re right, if we have to move around in our secret identities, you can’t call me Power Girl any more than I can call you Supergirl. And us looking as much alike as we do, for obvious reasons, to us anyway, calling each other Kara would be suspicious at best. Mind you, I don’t plan on staying in town long, but I may have to stay longer than I originally thought.”

She thought about it a moment as Kara seemed poised on the edge of her seat, or at least that’s the image that came to Power Girl’s mind. “I have a human secret identity, too, after all. We could use that. As far as the average human knows, I’m Karen Starr, CEO of Starr Software, in New York. So call me Karen.”

Kara smiled, and nodded, feeling better obviously. “Karen it is, then. Now, we just have to figure out how we know each other, just in case someone asks, and if we’re around my boss, Cat Grant, you can bet she’s going to ask.”

It was at that moment that J’Onn landed on the mountain top, with Alex in his arms. He set her down on the ground, and shrugged, “We apologize for the interruption, but Supergirl, you know how Alex is when she’s concerned.”

Both Kryptonians waved it off, neither offended. Alex took the opportunity to look at them both, and shook her head. “My God, you two look _so_ much alike, and you should, since…well, you get the idea,” she began, folding her arms loosely over her chest.

“So, just for argument’s sake,” Alex continued, feeling much better knowing that Kara was okay, and not hurt somewhere, “let’s put the cards down on the table, one at a time. First, everyone that knows Kara knows she was adopted, and that her parents died in a fire, when she was thirteen. We made the story pretty simple so it’s easy to remember. Second, nothing was ever said about siblings, one way or the other. So, conceivably, you guys could be sisters. And third, since you’d have been grown at the time that Kara’s parents died, according to the cover story, Starr could have been Kara’s birth name. It’d be easy to convince people that maybe you and ‘your’ parents had had a falling out shortly before they died, so you’d moved across the country to do your own thing, and didn’t find out about Kara’s parents until after she’d already been adopted.”

Everyone was listening attentively, and even though she didn’t have plans to stick around long, the more Power Girl thought about it, the more she thought getting to know Kara better might be a good idea, for many reasons. Kara, in particular, looked particularly excited about the prospect.

“You know, when you think about it, we _are_ sisters, in a weird sort of way,” said Kara finally, when Power Girl hadn’t said anything at that point. “We have the same parents, well, two versions of the same parents, anyway. Our blood is the same, though I know our quantum signature thingies would be different, since we’re from different universes. But nobody would think we were the same person, more or less, in two different stages and times of their lives. Us looking the same except for age would only make the sisters story more believable.”

J’Onn was quiet, as he often was, but Alex moved a little closer, and put her arm around Kara. “And I know that as much as Kara loves me and my parents, and that she and I couldn’t be more sisters if we shared the same blood and DNA, she still feels lonely with Kal being her only living blood relative. You’re not exactly a blood relative, but you’re closer than anyone else she’s got.”

Kara nodded in agreement, the excitement building up behind her eyes, with her trying to hold it in check, fearful that Power Girl might refuse the ruse. “Even though Aunt Astra had been a criminal, and Fort Rozz prisoner, she had always been close to me, and when she died…even though she was wrong in what she was wanting to do, it still hurt. And I never liked her husband, thank Rao he was only related to me by marriage.”

Power Girl looked down at the rocky ground a moment, and then back up at the three of them. “My Aunt Astra was a bad seed too. The right idea, the wrong methods. In the end, there was no way to save her, no matter how badly I wanted to. And your Non is a first class interplanetary ass too? Its nice to know some things are more parallel than others.” 

She actually cracked a smile and laughed. Kara got the idea that she wasn’t someone that laughed a lot, and she couldn’t imagine herself becoming so serious and carrying around so much simmering anger. Power Girl looked at each of them once more, and then shrugged. “I guess you’ve just got yourself another sister.”

Kara squealed in delight and hugged Power Girl tightly, spouting off rapid sentences about how wonderful it’ll be, how much fun, a literal outpouring of sheer, powerful optimism. Power Girl wasn’t sure whether she should hug back, wait, or what.

With a soft smile, Alex winked at her, and said, “In case you can’t tell, she’s _really_ excited, happy, and grateful about this. Oh yeah, and she’s a hugger, too. A _big time_ hugger.”

Power Girl’s brows drew together, wrinkling her forehead, and she looked down at Kara hanging off her like a chimp in a tree, and then up at the human, and deadpanned, “Really? I would never have guessed. So that’s what’s going on, then.” 

Everybody stopped, and Kara released her and looked up at her, ready to apologize profusely, but Power Girl let a slow smile spread over her face, and she winked. “I’m just kidding. Now, let’s head back to the city and see if we can’t turn Brainiac around and send him running back to Colu with his tail between his legs.”


	3. Chapter 3

**_Supergirl: Reflections of Me_ **

 

**Chapter 3**

 

The skull shaped ship shook violently under the assault from the four beings outside it, attacking it from all sides. The human and her weapon was of little concern. It’s primitive technology stood little chance against the advanced design of the Coluan vessel. It was annoying, but little beyond that, despite the fact it was of alien origin.

The Martian’s assault was more troublesome. While powerful, he lacked sufficient power to cause more than incidental damage to the ship. If he struck precisely, he could do fairly serious damage, but the green skinned Coluan calculated the possibility of less than ten percent.

The two Kryptonians, however, were a different matter. With their combined strength and power, it was conceivable, and the odds were much more in their favor than the odds of the Martian, that they could do extensive and devastating damage, even with the Kryptonite shield in place. They were the more serious, and immediate, threat.

The diode assembly across the front of Dox’s bald forehead glowed and crackled lightly as his vaunted brain power was put to work on analyzing the alien pair, augmenting the computations of his ship’s computer. He’d been doing sensor sweeps over the pair of them, seeking some sort of weakness beyond the Kryptonite barrier, some sort of hidden weakness that he could exploit with favorable probabilities. What he found was far from what he expected.

_”That is most interesting,”_ Dox thought, as he studied the readouts from his sensor probe. _”The Kryptonians’ DNA is an exact match, but it is not cloned tissue or cellular construction. However, their quantum signatures differ slightly, suggesting the Kryptonian female in white is from a different universe than this one, for Supergirl’s quantum signature is the same as my own. Therefore, it is safe to assume that they are parallel versions of the same entity. Unfortunately, it also means that Kryptonite originating in this universe will have a significantly lesser effect upon the Kryptonian from the parallel universe.”_

Brainiac’s analysis presented him with some complications, he knew. It would be much harder to weaken or deter the parallel Kryptonian, and possibilities were rapidly flowing through his computer like mind, being evaluated and discarded when the possibilities of their success fell below an acceptable margin by his estimation.

Dox reviewed his options as the assault continued on his vessel. Most of his constructs had been decimated by the ones attacking his ship, but some were still in some stage of functionality. Even so, the task they had been given had been completed. The bedrock holding up National City had been separated from the Earth, allowing it to be manipulated and moved as he wished.

First, however, he must deal with the attacks being made upon his ship, if he was to carry his plan out to its completion, which he completely intended upon finishing.

X

J’Onn dodged several particle beams the ship unleashed as he flew towards it. Something had caught his eye, and he had his suspicions concerning its function. Weaving his way through the deadly fire, he fixed his sights upon a small projection in the otherwise seamless skin of the ship. There were many of those small projections, and that’s what aroused his suspicion.

Pouring on the speed, J’Onn dodged his way to the ship and as he flew past it dangerously close, his closed fists shattered one of the projections extending out of the ship’s hull, and it exploded in a brief flash of sparks and light. Immediately, a small gap opened in the green Kryptonite shield protecting the ship, and the power of the shield as a whole dropped visibly.

“Alex, Supergirl, Power Girl,” he called out loudly to be heard over the whine of the beam weapons, and the destruction being caused on all sides. “Aim for the projections on the ship. They’re field emitters. If we can damage enough of them, the shield will fail and you can get to the ship itself!”

Alex heard, and scanned the surface, finding one. She took careful aim and pulled the trigger on her alien firearm. The beam lanced out from it and struck an emitter, sending it exploding into a shower of bright sparks. As the ship dodged and weaved, she drew a bead on a second one.

Kara looked at her doppelganger, who nodded, and they began firing extreme beams of heat vision towards the ship, striking several of the emitters one after the other, even as Alex and J’Onn continued to attack them as well. Even as the emitters went down and the gaps in the field widened, all of them could imagine Dox in his ship, already calculating his next move.

Power Girl weaved and turned suddenly, heading towards the ship itself, eyes glowing and preparing to unleash another blast of her formidable heat vision. Just before she could, however, a particle beam, laced with Kryptonite particles, lanced out and struck her in the chest, the energy crackled around her as she was thrown violently backwards, sailing over a building onto to smack into the one behind it, leaving a deep depression of destruction in the side of the skyscraper.

“Power Girl!” shouted Kara as she saw her older self be slammed backwards by the beam, and plowed into the building. She could feel the Kryptonite energy radiating from the beams as they flashed by. She could see Alex already running across the roof to make sure Power Girl was okay, but she herself had had enough. She was angry, _very_ angry.

Roaring much like Power Girl often did, she flew at the ship with deadly purpose and fury, her fist drawn back. As she approached it, she unleashed her strike, and the hull of the ship caved in deeply where her fist struck it. The ship actually lurched in the air she hit it so hard. The sound of her fist striking alien metal was ringing out in a very loud echo.

X

Inside the Coluan ship, alarms beeped and screamed as the assault on the vessel just increased a thousand fold. Dox knew he must act, and act quickly, if he was going to succeed at his goal, and survive long enough to get clear of the attack. There was no time for careful calculation and consideration. He knew he must act, and act _now_.

His fingers danced over the controls rapidly, having done it thousands of times before. National City was just the first in several cities on the Earth he intended to collect, assimilate all information he could concerning the technology, customs, and other information of different cultures of the world, and then storing them away like trophies.

Once the sequence was initiated, an opening yawned open in the bottom of the ship, and a light purplish ray shone from the emitter there, projecting widely over the entire city. There was a rumbling where the foundation of the city had been severed from the Earth, and though it would take a while, the whole of National City was in the process of being levitated and shrunk at the same time.

As the citizens of the city felt the rumbling beneath their feet and looked around in confusion, a state mirrored by the heroes battling the Coluan madman, Dox’s voice rang out from external speakers, “It is now too late. There is nothing you can do at this point. National City is in the process of being added to my collection, and it is the first of several to follow. My imperative for the Earth has begun, and soon it will be complete, and there is nothing you can do to stop it from occurring. You are simply outdone. Accept it, and learn from your mistakes.”

X

Power Girl rejoined them, and hovered in the air beside Supergirl, who was near both J’Onn and Alex. Alex, her eyes full of concern and urgency, looked at her companions, “This is a huge problem. We’ve got to figure out a way to reverse and stop this, and do it quick.”

“The question is how,” replied J’Onn, watching the ship and glancing down at the city occasionally. It had already shrunk a little, but enough that it was noticeable and it didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. “Does anyone know anything about Coluan technology?” His expression was hopeful, but not overly optimistic.

“I do,” replied Alex immediately, and firmly. “Indigo is Coluan, remember? When Winn was studying her code and figuring out how and why she could do the things she did, he got a very close look at what was a melding of Coluan technology and biology. I studied it as well. I don’t have as firm a grasp as Winn on it, maybe, but I’m a scientist. I know enough that I think I can undo this, and be pretty confident with that.”

Kara regarded her sister, and nodded firmly. “Then all we have to do is get you on board that ship,” she said, glancing in its direction. “If we can find a way to do that, maybe we can make some sort of distraction, keep Dox busy, while you figure it out. We just have to find a way to do it.”

Power Girl thought a second, and tilted her head. “I’ve got something that will help,” she said, regarding each of them with a serious gaze. “I’ve got an old personal Kryptonian transmat device in my operations room back in New York. Comparatively speaking, its an antique, but it still works. It was designed by my Great Aunt Cera Arn Zee, a century ago. Modern Kryptonian transmat devices, on my Krypton anyway, were much more advanced by the time Krypton exploded, but I know this one still works over smaller distances, like say the breadth of a large city.”

“We had them on my Krypton too,” Kara said, the idea becoming more solid in her head the whole time. “My parents didn’t think I’d have need for a personal one when they sent me here to take care of Kal El. There might be a blueprint for one in the archives that I’ve got, or that Kal El has, but I don’t know. If you’ve got a functioning one, that’d be great.”

The older Kryptonian nodded, looking towards Brainiac’s ship and then back at the three of them. “It works quite well, actually,” she said, tugging one glove back into a tight fit. “I shouldn’t be gone more than a minute, and that’s if I have to look for the thing.”

With that, she took off, cracking the sky as she went, in the direction of New York, leaving the rest of them there waiting.

J’Onn looked between Kara and Alex, and stroked his chin. They could feel the subtle change going on around them, even now. “Now we have to figure out a sufficient distraction to allow Alex to get inside that ship and reverse this ray, whatever it is. Something that’s sure to keep all of Dox’s attention on us.”

“Oh I think we can come up with a distraction,” Kara said, her face more serious than usual. It was obvious she was trying to think more strategically, but also the worry she felt about Alex’s safety was as obvious, as obvious as a hippo in a kid’s wading pool would be. “I’m more worried about Alex on the inside of that thing, alone with Dox, or whatever or whoever else he’s got in there with him.”

X

Maggie Sawyer, detective for the National City Police, Science Police Division, reached out and grabbed a hold of a wall as the city seemed to lurch beneath her feet once again. All around her, it was like people were losing their minds, screaming and running in a panic. The strange alien ship, the like no record she’d ever seen made mention of, had been over the city for quite some time now, and the robot things that had been all around the city seemed to have disappeared, but everyone had been aware they had been punching through the crust to the mantle, basically chipping National City off the landscape like a chip off a block of ice.

The sky was tinted a faint purple, and from the way it made the sky look, it was obvious that it was some sort of ray directed over the entire city. As if that and the quakes that kept shaking the city, though they didn’t feel like normal, natural quakes, weren’t bad enough, trying to keep her balance was challenging at best. It was like being dizzy and then getting on a fast moving elevator. Her equilibrium was all thrown off, and like everyone else, she had trouble staying right side up and on her feet.

There’d been reports of the Martian Manhunter, Supergirl, and another blonde woman that was most likely another Kryptonian battling the robots at the edges of the city earlier, but despite their absence, something was still going on, something serious. Whatever was going on, it felt like it was tearing the city apart, especially since clouds seemed to be growing in size rapidly, as if they were suddenly swelling with moisture, yet they weren’t darkening noticeably.

Maggie pulled her phone out and tapped Alex’s number into it, listening to it ring as she tried to hold onto something so she wouldn’t fall. When Alex’s voice came across the line, she felt herself exhale in relief. “Danvers, what the hell is going on? The city’s going crazy!” she exclaimed into the phone. Getting herself under control, her voice lowered, “Alex, babe, are you okay? I know its something connected to that alien ship, but if its using a weapon, its not an obvious one.”

There was something of a silence on the other end for a moment, but then Alex spoke clearly, “It’s a Coluan, kind of like the living cyber chick from a few months back, only a whole new brand of crazy.” It was obvious to Maggie’s ears that she was trying to stay calm, and keep Maggie calm at the same time as she continued, “This one is called Brainiac, and appears to be levitating the city up, and shrinking it, and everyone in it, from what I can see. We don’t know why, but we’re not letting him steal the city.”

Maggie frowned and looked around her. That would certainly explain the strange, almost constant quakes, the feeling of vertigo, and why the clouds seemed to be expanding so quickly, as well as the purplish tint of the sky and clouds. “You’re going to try to stop it, aren’t you?” she asked, wondering just how much Alex would try to sugar coat it, and gloss it over. “You’re going to do something crazy, and possibly get killed, aren’t you? Whatever you’re going to do, babe, please be careful? And where are you? I’m coming to you.”

She could hear Alex let out a slow breath on the other end of the line, and there was a short silence before she finally answered, “Yes, I’m going to try and stop it. You know I have to. But I’m not alone. Kara’s with me, and so is Hank. Plus, we’ve got another Kryptonian. We’ve got the firepower, believe me. But you can’t come here, Maggie, please. I don’t want you being in the middle of this, in case something goes wrong. I can’t lose you, I refuse to lose you.”

Maggie knew that Hank Henshaw, the Director of the DEO, was secretly J’Onn J’Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, even though most people didn’t know, but she was definitely curious about this other Kryptonian she mentioned. And of course, Alex gave her the argument she was expecting.

Rallying herself, and gathering her wits, she replied, “I’m sorry, Danvers, no can do. When I said I’d marry you, I was signing up for the whole package, for better or worse, all that stuff. Your danger is my danger, so I’m coming to you. So where the hell are you? And you’re not losing me. I love you way too much to give you that kind of peace this early in the relationship.” She paused, as she started making her way across the street, trying to figure which direction Alex would be in. “Besides,” she added, “I’m not losing _you_ either. Even Kara couldn’t tear us apart.”

The line crackled a moment, and finally Alex responded, “We’re on top of the Grayson Enterprises building, over on Thirteenth Street. _Be careful,_ Maggie. Please. There’s a lot of chaos and fallout around here.” There was another pause, and Alex’s voice was decidedly softer, “I love you too. Now, watch your ass and get over here if you’re coming.”

Maggie grinned to herself as she kept moving in the direction she was going. She was only a block or so from there. “Consider my ass being watched, babe. Don’t you move until I get there. I’ll see you in about ten,” she said, and then hung up. The connection was getting worse, anyway, so they’d have lost contact before long anyway.

Finally, she found herself at the entrance to the Grayson Enterprises building. She went inside, flashed her badge, and got an escort to the roof. _This is going to be interesting, I’m sure,_ she thought as she ascended.

X

“Maggie’s on her way, and hopefully Power Girl will be back soon. She’s a few minutes later than she said she’d be,” Alex told J’Onn and Kara as she hung up her phone. The others had already guessed that’s what was going on as she’d spoken on the phone.

J’Onn nodded solemnly, and glanced towards Brainiac’s ship once more. “She’ll be as safe here as anywhere else,” he said, his voice drawn out in thought. “She’ll be with us, and you know we won’t let anything happen to her.”

“No, we won’t,” echoed Kara, clenching her fists anxiously as they waited. “Maggie’s part of the family, and we don’t let family down. Stronger together, remember?” The Kryptonian axiom had become very well ingrained in Kara as a child, and since she’d come to Earth, she’d instilled that same sentiment in Alex, and the rest of their family as well.

“Stronger together,” echoed Alex as she checked the charge in her pistol and secured her other gear, preparing for the infiltration of the Coluan ship. She never failed to be amazed at the sense of hope and well being that Kara somehow managed to inspire in everyone, especially her.

The air cracked with a sonic boom and the sound of something rushing through the air just as Power Girl slowed and landed on the rooftop beside her companions. “It’s nice to know that your family’s motto was _’El Mayarah’_ as well. Our worlds were more similar than I thought, given the contrasts between your Earth and mine,” she said as she touched down. 

Just then, Maggie burst onto the roof and gave Alex a fierce hug, holding onto her for several moments. When she released Alex, she turned and got the first good look she’d had of Kara and Power Girl, especially with them standing right next to one another. “What the…?” she started, trailing off, as she pointed back and forth between the two of them. “What’s going on? Why does she look so much like Kara?”

It was a tangential question, to be sure, but it wasn’t something that they weren’t expecting at some point. Everyone expected to hear that a lot. Finally, Alex kissed her, and gave her a squeeze. “We’ll explain it all later,” she promised. “For right now, this is Power Girl, she’s Kryptonian as well, and she’s helping us. Power Girl, this is Maggie Sawyer, my fiancée.”

Alex nor Maggie really knew what to expect when Alex said that, but Power Girl didn’t even bat an eye. Instead, she nodded, gave Maggie a firm handshake, and waved Alex over. “This functions pretty easily. It’s not very complicated. You’ll be able to transmat yourself, J’Onn, and Maggie, if you wish. You just have to remember to be touching when you go.” 

She showed them all how to work the controls, how to set it, how to activate it, and how to deactivate it. As promised, it wasn’t very complicated. Once the lesson was over, there was a brief discussion of the plan.

Alex, J’Onn and Maggie would transmat to the ship, attempt to locate the controls for the reduction and levitation beams, and reverse them, returning National City to its proper size and its proper place. They’d also attempt to not be discovered by Brainiac, or whatever security systems he may have in place on board his vessel.

Meanwhile, Supergirl and Power Girl would stage a blitz assault on the ship, to make sure all Brainiac’s concerns and resources were spent battling them, and not have time to concern himself with possible intruders. 

Once it was clear everyone knew the plan, Maggie asked, “What if this screwball has some sort of force field or something that prevents this transmat whatchamacallit thing from working? Will we just stay here, or will we be smeared over the field like cream cheese, or what?”

It was a valid question, and Power Girl pointed to one of the displays on the wrist panel. “If such a countermeasure is in effect, the device will warn you that such a thing is in place, and it won’t initialize until the field is either deactivated, or is in some way augmented to where it’ll be able to penetrate the field anyway.”

“That makes me feel a lot better, then,” Alex breathed, looking at everyone. Her adrenaline was pumping hard, as she was sure Maggie’s was as well, and after a deep breath, she nodded to the two Kryptonians after making sure J’Onn was ready as well. “Okay,” she said with a tight smile, “let’s do this.”


	4. Chapter 4

**_Supergirl: Reflections of Me_ **

Chapter 4

 

 _CLANG, THUD, RIIIIPPPP, BOOM!_ These are the sounds Brainiac could hear inside his ship as Supergirl and Power Girl assaulted his vessel. Lights flickered and flashed around him as he fought to keep his attitude in the air level, and the beam on the city constant. The computer was telling him quite adamantly that the hull and shield integrity was dropping, and quickly.

The sizzling of two bursts of heat vision striking the nearly impervious hull of his ship was in counterpoint to the devastating physical blows they were peppering the ship with. Alarms started going off again, with the message that the hull temperature was climbing alarmingly close to tolerance levels.

 _“It would seem that the two Kryptonians are more formidable than I originally estimated. A singular mistake I will not make any longer. My estimations must allow a greater margin for caution at this juncture of my venture,”_ the Coluan thought as he moved to a different console to check on the progress of the city being lifted and shrunken.

He frowned as he studied the reports on the screen above where he was dutifully monitoring the operation to steal National City. _“It appears they defy the probabilities even now. They have just ruptured the outermost shell of my hull. This necessitates my withdrawal for the moment, but it also means that I shall have to being again on the process for bringing the city aboard the ship.”_

As the ship lurched hard on its gravitational axis, he instigated the dissolution of the beam. It would take some time to power down without dropping the city and destroying the very object he intended to collect. A definite setback, but not a defeat. He knew that he could be patient, and he would eventually triumph.

X

The alien hull rang loudly again as the two Kryptonians struck it hard. The shield emitters had all been destroyed, and the ship was full of dents, and the pair were determined to make it holes before they were done. The ship bounced around like a cat’s toy mouse as it was batted around the floor. There were noticeable creases in the alien alloy, but suddenly, a crack, a fissure, opened in the outer shell.

“We’re finally getting there, we’re getting through,” Kara called out over the noise of their assault. Her fists continued to strike at it, and even curled her fingers around the edges and started pulling the crack wider. “We’ve got to get to the next layers of hull, so we can crack this thing like an egg over his fat Coluan head!”

Despite herself, Power Girl actually laughed. Briefly, but laughed. Kara was so much like her in so many ways, at that age, but she was quite different too. Same person, different versions, somewhat different experiences. She thought it was amazing how much a few different experiences and time could make in a person. A lot of their lives was almost exactly the same, but as they’d gotten older, their two lives took on quite a few differences. Yet, each was Kara from Krypton, just not the same Krypton.

Power Girl renewed her punching of the ship’s hull, the split growing wider and then helped Supergirl pull it back and they began striking the next layer. “And we will,” she assured Supergirl as their fists traded punches on the metal like the hammers of two blacksmiths forging one blade. “We’re going to end this even if we have to drag his ass out of this ship through the thing that looks like a skull’s nose cavity on the front of this monstrosity.”

Both were curious as to why no further defensive retaliation was being given from the ship to their brutal physical attack. There hadn’t been so much as a stray laser beam shooting from the alien craft, and that was very much unlike Vril Dox, Power Girl knew.

“Keep alert, Supergirl,” warned Power Girl as their punching continued. Both were surprised the thing hadn’t fallen out of the sky by now, from all the force of their attack. “Dox doesn’t give up or surrender. If he’s not trying to defend the ship any longer, there’s a reason, and I’m positive we’re not going to like it.”

X

Alex, Maggie and J’Onn appeared in a brief cascade of light inside Brainiac’s ship, somewhere in the lower sections. Once they were oriented again, they looked around, looking for something, anything, that might lend a clue as to how to stop the crazed Coluan from achieving his goal, whatever it ultimately might be. But for now, stopping him from taking National City was a great way to start.

The trio had come into a large area that looked like the bowels of the ship, where a lot of the equipment was wired through and the power source was close by they figured. Somewhere had to be the device that was shrinking and levitating National City, and they had to reverse it and shut it down, all without Brainiac realizing that they were there and doing so. They knew they couldn’t escape his notice for long, not even with Supergirl and Power Girl keeping him distracted.

Maggie frowned as they looked around, and J’Onn had generously given her one of the alien weapons that the DEO kept confiscated that he’d brought with him. She kept it at the alert and ready. As they went through a few chambers and around a bulkhead or two, she stopped and looked at Alex and J’Onn. “What does this thing we’re looking for look like, anyway?” she asked in a quiet whisper.

J’Onn frowned and looked around the interior of the chamber they were in, at the door to the entrance of another compartment. “It’ll likely be sort of a reticulation chamber of some sort, most likely semi circular or circular, with a central seat. There will probably also be some sort of shaft with a focusing lens or something. It’s one of those things that is a reasonably universal design principle,” he replied. 

Alex paused, her gun also at the ready, listening to them and checking the instrument she brought with her in the hopes of tracking it down quicker. Maggie’s question was logical enough, since nobody had said anything about what, exactly, to look for.

“Great,” answered Maggie, her voice still quiet. “I think we just found it.” 

She nodded towards the chamber they were about to enter. Inside was a setup much like J’Onn described, with the torso, arms and head of an artificial construct twisting and turning, maintaining the operation. It was literally built into the device, an autonomous control computer, housed within the half body of a utilitarian robot. It didn’t look like it was going to politely agree to comply with their demand to shut it down, either, unfortunately. It looked rather capable of defending itself.

Alex’s brows knitted together and she took a chance, peering into the chamber for a quick look. When she saw what Maggie saw, she felt her breath rush out of her. “Shit,” she said, leaning her head back against the wall. This was going to be dangerous, too dangerous, and she knew that. She couldn’t believe she agreed to let Maggie come along. Maggie was tough, tough as steel, she knew that, but she still didn’t want to put Maggie in the middle of something like this. She didn’t know what to expect, what could happen, not really.

“I know that look, Danvers,” Maggie said with a slight edge to her whispered voice. She met Alex’s eyes and her gaze was unwavering, filled with the readiness and the skill that Alex knew was there. “You’re not stopping me from going in there, and I’m sure as _hell_ not letting you and J’Onn go in there alone while I hang back here. It’s not happening, do you understand me, Alex? It’s _not happening._ Period.”

Alex had that look like she was going to retort, to fire back with some argument about keeping her safe, that she wasn’t about to take a chance on losing her. She could see the pained struggle in her soon to be wife’s eyes. Her voice and face softened, and she continued, “Stronger together, remember? You and me, together we can do anything. With J’Onn and Kara’s help, we can do even more. We’re _stronger together._ You taught me that, you and Kara, and J’Onn. So, we’re doing this together. Okay?”

Alex looked at her, then over at J’Onn. The Martian didn’t say anything, at least not out loud. Telepathically, though, he told her, _“She’s got you there, Alex. I have a feeling that this is a fight that you’re not going to win. I’ve known that feeling all too often when fighting a losing battle against another formidable woman. That would be you.”_

“You’re not helping, J’Onn,” grumped Alex good naturedly. She drew a deep breath and sighed long and slow, looking back over at Maggie. “Okay, I’m not going to try and stop you, or keep you back here, because I know goddamned well it’s not going to do me any good whatsoever to try. But _promise_ me you’ll be careful, and not take any reckless chances. Please, Maggie? I don’t care what’s about to happen, or what Brainiac does or tries to do to me. Be careful.”

“I’ll keep an eye on you both. I’ll make sure neither of you has to worry about anything harming the other,” J’Onn said, taking his true form once more. He looked from one to the other, the care and affection he felt towards both of them, towards Kara, was unmistakable in his eyes.

Maggie impulsively leaned forward and kissed Alex’s lips hard, with passion and fire. Her hand came to Alex’s soft cheek when their lips finally parted, and her dark eyes met Alex’s. Alex covered her hand with her own as she replied, “I promise, I’ll be careful. But you have to promise me the same thing. I know you. It’s part of why I love you so much. Now, let’s get this bastard, knock out his thingamajiggy, and then let’s go have beer and pizza and have the whole family sit down with us for a movie.”

The sound of Supergirl and Power Girl’s attacks on the ship were clearly heard and felt down where they were. They hadn’t lessened at all, and the ship seemed to hum along as if it was unconcerned. Alex and J’Onn both noticed, and looked up a moment, as if trying to feel what was going on.

“That sounds like a plan to me, babe,” answered Alex finally, and checked the charge in her weapon. She leaned over to take a quick look into the adjacent chamber and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Now, let’s take this overgrown waffle iron out, and put our home back where it belongs.”

The trio moved stealthily towards the chamber, and made it as close to the central control unit as they were probably going to get before they had no choice to but to full on attack. J’Onn gave them the signal, and Alex bolted forward, tucking into a roll and coming up firing. Blue bolts of light shot from her pistol, striking the consoles around the robot, and landing a glancing one off its shoulder.

The robot took notice of her immediately, and started firing back with a weapon built into its hand, it seemed. Red light blasted several pieces of equipment, sending sparks flying in bright blooms around the chamber. It was no longer focused solely on its task to maintain the beams affecting the city.

At the same moment, Maggie had taken off in the other direction. Alex distracted the robot from Maggie, which allowed her to get further into the projection complex. When the robot narrowly missed Alex, sending up a shower of sparks to her immediate right, Maggie started firing, each shot as precisely aimed as possible while running in the bottom of an alien spacecraft filled with exotic equipment no human has ever seen, jumping over huge conduits and other hazards, and trying not to freak out and go ballistic because the damned thing almost shot her girlfriend. Her beams bounced off two of the consoles around the robot, and if the third had been any closer, it’d have parted the robot’s hair, if it had any.

The robot’s attention was now focused on Maggie, which prompted Alex to move rapidly across the floor, taking shots at the robot again. It didn’t seem to process a double pronged attack very well, which led them all to believe it was an extremely low level automaton, designed only to monitor and maintain a specific task, rather than act intuitively.

While the women kept the robot off balance, focusing it’s attention back and forth between them, J’Onn moved into position nearby. He’d willed his body’s molecules to become transparent, making him invisible. As the robot rotated and fired, he moved inexorably towards the control mechanisms of the device. He frowned at a sudden change in the noise in the room and looked up.

Alex screamed in pain as one of the robot’s shots landed, striking her in the right shoulder, which exploded through the muscle there, and sent her weapon flying across the room as she went down, already going into shock. She was shaking badly, and struggling to regain her feet and take cover, only the robot was zeroing in on her.

 _“Alex!”_ screamed Maggie, as she saw her fiancée go down after taking a nasty wound. From the expression on Alex’s face, she knew it had to be killing her, because Alex was as tough as they come, and could take a hell of a beating without doing much more than wincing. She leaped over a huge conduit, firing as she flew through the air, though her shots were erratic, and though they came close, none were truly threatening to the mechanical assailant.

The robot adjusted it’s aim, bringing both arm cannons to bear on the pair of them. Maggie was scrambling, trying to help Alex up and behind a support, but Alex’s legs were like rubber. She was already shaking and her teeth were chattering, intensive shock setting in already. There was a sizzle, and Maggie looked up, a horrified expression on her face. The robot had just fired both arm cannons.

X

Dox frowned as he rapidly input commands into his central computer. He was preparing the AI within it to be encapsulated and be mobile by compiling it into his portable interface. The information contained within it’s memory would prove invaluable while he regrouped and engineered a retaliation plan.

Sunlight suddenly shone on his face, a small, but growing rupture in the inner hull had just opened, thanks to the fists of the two Kryptonians. It would only be seconds before the pair of them ripped the hull of the ship open like peeling an orange, and were inside, breaching the last of his defenses.

This first attempt had been stymied, of that there was no doubt. It was an irrefutable fact. However, it wouldn’t be the last attempt. Brainiac was never without at least the beginnings of a backup plan, or an exit strategy. Despite his arrogance and his pride of his twelfth level intelligence, he was smart enough to know that he wasn’t infallible, and that there were always a plethora of incalculable variables that could shift the tides in less than a nanosecond. It was never _completely_ inconceivable that he could make an error, either in planning, execution, or due to an unforeseen variable entering the mix.

Glancing upwards at the widening rift in his ship, his escape pod prepared itself around him, which would allow him to launch and execute a super speed burst to extricate himself from this grand misstep. He was waiting for the opportune moment.

X

Both Kryptonians heard the distinctive fire of Alex and Maggie’s weapons, and the sound of another particle beam weapon that was unfamiliar to their ears. That could only mean one thing.

Kara looked up at her parallel older self and her expression was horrified. “Alex! Maggie! J’Onn!” she exclaimed, and suddenly her efforts became laden with the power of desperation and growing panic, and anger. Her fingers curled into the rift and pulled back in a powerful jerk, releasing a loud roar in the process.

Power Girl pushed her fingers into the rift as well, pulling hard on the other side. If the metal had been something from Earth, they could have ripped it like it was less than tissue. It came from a far away world, though, and it had properties no metal on Earth had. It was many times stronger, possibly stronger than even Promethium. Her teeth grated in exertion, and finally the metal shrieked and started peeling back.

Once the hole was big enough, Kara instantly flew in, her heat vision blasting her path. She was looking for her sister and friends, but she was also looking for Brainiac, and with those discharges still being fresh in her ears, Power Girl could tell she wasn’t going to be holding back much, like she normally did. 

Once Kara was inside, she followed right behind, already charging up her heat vision in case it was needed. These people were not only important because they were people in need of help, they were Kara’s friends, her family, and family was a very strong bond to the House of El, or the House of L, whichever you chose to speak of.

X

 _“No!”_ The shout rang out in the enclosed chamber, echoing off the walls as J’Onn realized what was happening. The robot was firing on two of the people he held closest to him, people he thought of as his family. He wouldn’t, he _couldn’t_ let harm come to them. Not them.

Moving as fast as he was capable, the fastest he’d ever moved in his life, J’Onn poured on all the super speed he had, flying in front of Maggie and Alex. At the same moment, he willed his body to harden, and at the same time, absorb most of the heat and kinetic energy the blasts had. They struck his chest, a rapid succession, leaving painful, blackened burns in their wake. It hurt like hell, so badly that J’Onn nearly keeled over with the pain, but the blasts hadn’t hit Maggie or Alex. They were safe.

Before J’Onn could act further, however, Maggie had snatched up Alex’s pistol, and she aimed, firing both of them at once at the robot’s head. The beams pierced its metal skin and literally blew the things head off in an eruption of sparks and fire. The head was melted slag and the body fell over backwards, bending its support structure, all but destroyed. It wouldn’t bother anyone ever again. J’Onn turned back towards the couple, checking to see if either of them were injured other than Alex’s shoulder.

“N-n-nice shooting, Hawkeye,” chattered Alex as she shook uncontrollably, huddled around herself and cradling her unresponsive arm. “It’s nice to know you can shoot like that when you have to.” She tried to smile a smartassed smile, but she ended up just grimacing instead.

“Well thank you, babe. It’s not like you haven’t done something like that for me a thousand times,” replied Maggie, coming down to try to help her stand again, but also gently cradling her in her arms. She was very careful not to move or bump Alex’s shoulder and arm, but she was glad Alex couldn’t see the sympathetic grimace on her face when she got a closer look at the wound. “You’re going to be okay, Alex. I’m going to make sure of it. We’re going to get you back to the DEO and somebody there better take care of my baby, and pronto.”

“I will always do anything and everything it takes to keep you safe, Maggie,” replied Alex, her voice thick with pain, as valiantly as she was trying not to show it. “Always.”

While they were talking, J’Onn willed his body to become ghostlike and he phased through the circuitry of the computers, causing them to explode in small explosions, and the beams focused on the city were stopped. According to what he’d seen on the screen, the beams were reversing their effects, and settling the city back on the ground before fizzling out. He breathed easier knowing that.

At that same instant, the ceiling above them cracked and ripped open to admit two worried, and angry, Kryptonians. Kara’s face grew alarmed, and she shouted, “Alex!” Instantly, in a burst of super speed, she was at Alex’s other side, being very careful not to move her arm in any way.

“Kara,” murmured Alex, half supported by Maggie. She reached her hand over and touched her little sister’s arm. “I’m okay. Well, mostly okay. It hurts like a bitch, but I’m still breathing. That’s something, right?” She hoped her joking tone would ease Kara’s mind, but as usual, it didn’t seem to be as effective as she’d hoped.

Kara was listening, but she was also looking inside Alex’s shoulder with her x ray vision. Her brows came together in that little crease that she hated so much. “You’re not losing a lot of blood because its almost completely cauterized. But there’s a lot of tissue damage. It missed the bone, but your nerve chains there have been blasted to hell. Rao, you must be in hellish pain.” Her eyes were full of sympathy, and she reached over and gave Maggie’s hand a gentle squeeze to let her know that even though she hadn’t said anything out loud, she was there for the detective.

“She’s in shock,” said J’Onn, who’d just smashed the rest of the computers that were controlling the shrinking ray. “Get her back to the base, so she can get medical attention. You can get there faster than I can. I’ll make sure Maggie gets there.”

“What happened to the Brainiac freakazoid?” asked Maggie, one hand holding Alex’s, the other holding Kara’s. “Did you guys deal with him?” Since nobody had said anything, she was worried the trouble was just starting.

Power Girl shook her head. “He escaped in an escape pod and returned to his mother ship. We were more worried about you guys, since the threat to the city is over for now. Dox isn’t going to stop. We just have to be ready when he does.”

Kara scooped up Alex carefully, and like a red and blue blur, she flew back out of the ship, sounding a chain of sonic booms as she flew towards the DEO. Maggie let her fingers trail from Alex’s as she was flown out of the ship.

“We will be,” said J’Onn seriously, his red eyes on Maggie, then Power Girl. “We’ll be ready, and then we’re going to take him down and put him where he belongs.”

Power Girl noticed Maggie looking upwards through the rip, and looking very anxious. The corners of her lips turned upwards ever so slightly, and she picked her up carefully. “I’ll give you a lift. I’ll see you back at the DEO, J’Onn,” she said seriously before flying out with J’Onn directly behind her. This was just getting started, he knew.


	5. Chapter 5

**_Supergirl: Reflections of Me_ **

**Chapter 5**

 

Supergirl flew in the window of the DEO building so fast the people inside could only see a blur. Her red booted feet hit the floor and she called out, “Alex needs to get to the med bay right _now!_ She’s been shot by an alien beam weapon of some kind.” She held her shivering sister close to her as she said this, whispering reassuring words to her.

The agents cleared a path for the Kryptonian, and with a burst of speed, she sped her way into the bay and put Alex on a bed. Immediately, the DEO doctors started examining her wound, and conferring with each other. She held Alex’s hand for a long moment, until Alex croaked out, “I-I’ll be okay, Kara. I promise. Make sure Maggie’s okay for me, please?”

Supergirl nodded solemnly, and exited the bay, but she kept looking back in through the transparent walls. Worry was etched on her face, and she wrung her hands in frustration. _This shouldn’t have happened. I should have been there, I should have been protecting her, instead of hammering away at that damned ship. Brainiac, Dox, whatever he calls himself is going to have his hands full when I catch up with him._

She felt like punching something, and punching it _hard._ However, she knew that wouldn’t really do any good for any of the situations she was facing. A sound caught her attention, and she turned, seeing Power Girl land almost exactly where she had, and she carefully set Maggie down on her feet. A couple of seconds later, J’Onn landed beside them.

“Agent Schott!” yelled J’Onn as his very large green skinned body ripped with red and melted into the familiar form of Hank Henshaw. He strode with intense purpose across the floor, heading straight for the computer banks, where Winn and several other techs sat, typing away at their keyboards. The look on his face was grim, and the agents of the clandestine agency knew to stay out of his way until that look softened some.

Winn Schott, Jr, former IT professional for CatCo Worldwide Media, now an agent of the Department of Extra Normal Operations, whirled in his chair towards the large man, actually saluting. Humor was Winn’s way of coping with worry and stress, but as much as he valued Winn’s abilities, he was rarely amused by the young man’s antics.

“Yes, sir, your Martian Marviness, sir,” he boldly proclaimed before promptly shrinking down in his seat. He deduced, quite accurately, that the Martian was in no mood for joking and hijinks. Immediately sobering, he scowled slightly and tried again, “Yes, sir, Director J’Onzz?”

The disguised Martian growled low, “Brainiac was forced to flee, and he most likely rendezvoused with his mother ship. I need you to _find_ that ship, and find it _now!”_ He wasn’t angry at the young man, he was angry at the Coluan madman that was plaguing their city at the moment. Yet, that anger was trying to take control at the moment and it was all J’Onn could do to fight it down.

The young IT guy started clacking buttons on his keyboard immediately, and code flew across his screen at the craziest of speeds. He didn’t even bother to speak, not even to say he understood, instead he just focused his attention completely on the task at hand. He knew the Martian well enough to know what was going on, but he could still scare Winn from time to time, intentional or not. 

Meanwhile, as soon as Maggie’s feet hit the floor, she thanked Power Girl quickly and ran to Kara’s side. She looked into the bay just as Kara was doing. Impulsively, she laid her hand on Kara’s arm and looked up at her. “What’s going on?” she asked, nervously looking back and forth. “Are they going to be able to help her? If they can’t, and something happens to her, that green faced son of a…”

Wincing in compassion and understanding, she turned to her sister’s fiancée and put her hand on her shoulder, and cut off her tirade, “She’ll be okay, Maggie, I promise. These people have extensive experience with this sort of thing. They know what they’re doing and can make sure the damage doesn’t become any worse than what it already is, and start that much to healing already.”

She understood the cop’s anger, she was angry as well. Maggie’s eyes searched hers, as if looking for something, for some kind of answer or sign that everything was going to be okay. Kara tried to project confidence and assurance, as well as hope, but her face betrayed her worry, despite her best attempts. The young Kryptonian just hoped that Maggie kept her head. She and Alex both had a pattern of throwing all caution to the wind when it came to helping the other, which is a large part of what made Kara think they were perfect for each other.

Kara hugged the detective fiercely for a moment and patted her back. She didn’t say anything further, but she didn’t have to. Over the past several months, even though Maggie and Kara had had their ups and downs, they respected each other, and the other’s love for Alex, but even more, they had started developing a sisterly bond themselves. Each knew the other would move Heaven and Earth for Alex, and they each took comfort in that knowledge.

As Kara let Maggie go so she could sit by the window and go in as soon as she was allowed, the Kryptonian looked up to see her older doppelganger approaching her. She met her in the middle, at a spot where they could speak quietly without being overheard. She wasn’t sure why she thought that would be necessary, but it was possible just in case.

The older Kryptonian looked around for a moment, and then back to Kara. Her voice was quiet, but measured, and her eye contact never wavered. “You do know this isn’t over, right?” she asked her younger self, her arms crossed, making her look quite formidable, even for a superpowered Kryptonian. “There’s no way in Rao’s light that he’ll just give up and move on. Dox is much more persistent than that.”

“I know,” answered Kara, nodding softly. Her eyes also wandered the base for a moment before returning her gaze to Power Girl’s face. “I had to get Alex here, though, and make sure Maggie was safe, too. He’s licking his wounds, at least for the moment, but every second he stays out there is a second he’s calculating his next move, and with a computer like brain, that won’t take much, I’m sure.”

The older woman nodded, casting a rather steely gaze out the window to the city outside. “Dox isn’t known for procrastination, no. So you can bet he’s not only planning his next move, he’s planning his next ten moves, and has each and every one of them already in action, ready to spring at the right moment,” she continued. “You’re right, Dox is, essentially, an organic, living, breathing computer. A humanoid life form, yes, but with the mental capacity of any super computer in existence almost anywhere. And he’s dangerous, extremely dangerous. The quicker we can take him down, the easier this is all going to be.”

Kara nodded, deep in thought. Rubbing her chin lightly, she met Power Girl’s eyes once more. “I don’t doubt it for one second. It’s obvious that Dox is far more than just some crazy Coluan acting erratic and illogical. He’s coldly logical and precise, and he has some sort of plan for…” she trailed off, as if she’d lost her train of thought.

Suddenly, without warning, she slapped both hands to her cheeks in anguish, and exclaimed, “Holy shit! Oh, Rao, I forgot! I’ve got to get my story on the attack drafted and done, and get it in to work as quickly as I can. Oh, Miss Grant or Snapper, or both, are going to _kill_ me if I don’t get that story in.” She started pacing back and forth, wringing her hands in obvious anxiety.

The older Kara watched her younger counterpart for a moment before speaking, “Kara, slow down. Go ahead and write your story. It shouldn’t take that long at all, especially with the computers here. Get it done and then get it to your bosses. We’ll figure out what to do about Dox after that. Sound good?” She knew all too well the ill effects of the anger, anxiety and aggravation her younger self was experiencing.

Kara nodded, and impulsively hugged her older self again, then made her way to a computer terminal. Before she was in her seat good, her fingers were flying far faster than a human’s fingers, typing like mad.

X

The two Kryptonians entered the elevator leading to the newsroom of CatCo Magazine, the publication Kara worked for. She turned to Power Girl, both of them now dressed in civilian clothes, and smiled. “Thanks for coming in with me,” she told her older self. “This will give me a plausible reason why I’m late with the story, since I had to make sure my sister was okay in the middle of the crazy alien trying to steal the city.”

“No problem,” answered Power Girl thoughtfully. Her brows knit, that little crinkle between her brows that she shared with Kara bunching up quite strongly. “Why would they be bent out of shape? It’s a damned madhouse out there with everything going on. There’s any number of reasons why you could be late with the story. You should take it easy. Your bosses can’t be that uptight.”

Kara tittered nervously and clutched the story folder as if her life depended on it. “Oh, you don’t know Miss Grant and Snapper,” she said in a whisper. “They demand the world run on their schedules, and Rao help you if you don’t agree, or you don’t run on their schedule.”

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened, letting the two Kryptonians out on the floor of the magazine’s inner workings. Ahead of them, in Snapper’s office, he growled seeing her, while Cat Grant fixed her with a withering stare. Kara’s head pulled down between her shoulders nervously as she glanced back and forth between the two of them. She gingerly laid the folder on Snapper’s desk and swallowed hard. “Here’s my story. I’m sorry I’m so late. The power outages, the traffic, and everything else going on made trying to get here pretty crazy.”

Snapper’s upper lip curled and he grabbed the folder in a thick fingered hand. “You’re _late_ Ponytail,” he growled nastily. “You’d better thank God, or whatever gets you through the day, that the same conditions that made you late are messing up the competition’s ability to get their stories to their desks too. Pray you were the faster one, Danvers.”

“Um, yes, sir, Chief,” said Kara in a small sounding voice. She’d learned to be more assertive and self reliant, even around him, but right now, she was nervous because he seemed like he was in a much nastier mood than normal.

While all this was going on, Cat was staring at the pair of them, sizing them up crucially, as Kara finished talking to Snapper. Her eyes narrowed as they often did when she felt she’d just snagged onto something. Finally, she spoke, “Kara…” She dragged her former assistant’s name out longer than necessary, but at least she pronounced it right. “Who exactly is this, and what are they doing in my magazine newsroom?”

Kara glanced quickly back and forth between the two of them, her mouth opening a couple of times before words tried to come out. Before she could answer, though, Cat held up a hand. “Wait. You can tell me in my office. Three minutes, Kara. Chop, chop.” The media mogul walked past the pair of them and towards her private elevator, leaving them there, watching Snapper growl and scowl over Kara’s story.

X

They emerged from the elevator on the main floor of the CatCo building and were heading for Cat’s office when a tall, athletic looking man stopped them. “Hey, Kara, and hello, Miss. Are you okay? I heard about what…about what happened out there. Is everybody okay?” James Olsen was genuinely concerned, but he wasn’t sure what to make of Kara’s companion, and was trying to keep references to Alex and the others as vague as possible.

James looked up again, and noticed the uncanny resemblance between his friend, and the woman she was with. It was unreal, he thought, how much they looked alike. _She must be family of some kind. I hope she’s nothing like Kara’s Aunt Astra. I think we’ve all had enough bad experiences with Kara’s less than nice, superpowered relatives over the past couple of years._

“It’s okay, James,” whispered Kara, casting furtive glances towards Cat’s office and back. “This is Kara, er, Karen. She’s like me. And Alex will be fine. She’s being treated now, and Maggie is with her. Having fits, of course, but she’s with her. We can’t explain now. Cat’s about to go nuclear if we don’t get to her office, ‘chop, chop.’”

James knew all too well how Cat Grant could get when she demanded something, and that demand wasn’t met and carried out with the utmost immediacy. He nodded, and moved along back towards his office, taking another look over his shoulder at the pair of them. “Damn, she looks a lot like Kara. A few years older, maybe, but looks freakily like her. Sounds like her too,” he mumbled to himself as he listened to them talking as they moved towards Cat’s office.

Cat was leaning against her desk with her ankles crossed, and spinning her glasses by the earpiece when the Kryptonians came into her office. She narrowed her eyes slightly and spoke with a particularly cool voice. Kara was reminded of the two years she was Cat’s assistant, before becoming a reporter for the magazine. Since then, she spoke differently, for the most part, to Kara, but something was up, she could tell.

“You’re thirteen seconds late,” stated the Queen of All Media as she glared at the both of them, looking as if she were sizing them up for nooses or something. Finally, she broke the silence again, “Now, I’m curious. Who is this woman, and why is she in my building? She bears a striking resemblance to you, Kara. Family?”

Power Girl could feel her jaw clenching and the scrape of her teeth on the inside of her jaw. People like Cat Grant annoyed her and stirred up her latent anger response. She could feel Kara looking back and forth between her and her boss, and silently begging her not to lose her temper. Instead, she smiled, and extended her hand. “Karen Starr,” she introduced herself, glancing at Kara for a bare instant before focusing on Cat again. “Kara is my little sister.”

Kara smiled nervously and nodded, confirming silently what Power Girl said. Cat, however, chewed the earpiece of her glasses thoughtfully and shrewdly looked at both of them. “While the resemblance is quite remarkable,” she began, “Kara is adopted, and has an older sister through that adoption. I’ve met her, and she looks nothing like you. So, you’re telling me that you’re Kara’s biological sister?”

The media mogul continued to study the stranger in her office. She was surprisingly muscular for a woman, suggesting she worked out extensively. Something clicked in her mind, though and she tilted her head. “Karen Starr, you said? Would that be Karen Starr, owner of Starr Software in New York?” She knew the company, of course. It wasn’t huge or a blockbuster company, like Microsoft or Apple, but it had a solid reputation and was well known in technical circles.

“One and the same,” Power Girl replied, allowing a very slight smile to come to her face. “When I was younger, our parents and I didn’t get along, we had a lot of differences of opinion and couldn’t seem to get on the same page. After a nasty argument, I left Midvale and moved to New York. Kara, being ten years younger than me, stayed behind with our parents. When they died in the fire, a couple of months later, I feared they all died.

“When I found out Kara hadn’t died, that she’d been spending the night with a friend, I was overjoyed, and tried to find her, to take care of her. But by then, she’d already been adopted, and there was so much damned red tape, where they’d placed her had gotten lost in the shuffle of paperwork. I didn’t find her until a couple of weeks ago,” she continued, watching Cat’s face.

Cat’s brows twitched closer together and she narrowed her eyes again. “Twelve years is a long time to search for someone,” she said slowly. Now and then, she’d cast a glance at Kara. In her own way, Cat was protective over Kara, though she rarely allowed it to be seen as such. In her mind, she was worried that Power Girl was someone trying to take advantage of Kara, but the amazing resemblance was the only thing keeping her from being sure of it.

“Don’t I know it,” replied Power Girl with a slight sternness to her voice, more like how she normally spoke. “And its been almost thirteen years now. Now, I’m not alone anymore, and she has her other sister again. Her family is finally whole once more, as whole as it can be without our parents.”

“She’s right, Miss Grant,” piped up Kara, adjusting her glasses nervously. “I’ve been wondering where Karen was, why she hadn’t come and gotten me when our parents died. It never occurred to me that my details got lost in the huge shuffling pile of paperwork, and that she couldn’t find me because of it. But she’s here now, and we’re together again. Even with everything happening, I’m so happy that my family is finally complete again.”

Cat let all that sink in for a moment and then she nodded, putting her reading glasses back on her desk. “Congrats,” she said with a half smile. “I’m sure Kara will become even more excellent at her job, now that such a worry is off her shoulders. Welcome to National City, Karen. Now, I’ve got a lot of work to do, articles to write, so fly, little birds, fly, and let me roost alone in my nest awhile. Shoo.”

As Cat sat down again, Kara said her good byes for the moment and left the office with Power Girl, who looked back at the office again, then to Kara once more. “Is she _always_ like that? People like that aggravate the shit out of me. I’d have to punch her in the mouth before too long,” she said as they headed for the elevator. The doors closed and the car started moving, whirring along its cable.

“Don’t think I haven’t been tempted from time to time,” replied Kara, letting a long breath out. “But when you get past all those thorns and that prickly exterior, she’s really a kind hearted, wonderful and inspiring woman and role model. It just takes a while to get to it.”

“It must be way, way deep then,” grumbled Power Girl as the elevator carried them to the ground floor. “Not even x ray vision could reach that. So its either very deep, or encased in lead.”

As the doors opened, and the elevator dinged, Kara laughed, nearly spitting out the water she’d just taken a drink of. _Oh, having Kara around is going to be fun, I can see that._

X

The pair entered the DEO building, in uniform, having flown over from CatCo, and landed in the main part of the Ops room. An agent flagged Kara down and let her know that Alex was sleeping, but doing better. They were trying out the new healing gel they’d been working on.

Just as the agent walked back to the bay, Winn clapped his hands loudly together, and danced a little jig in his seat. As he moved his arms around, he sung, “Agent Schott for the win, for the win, Winn Schott for the win!”

“What is it, Winn?” asked J’Onn, stepping over from where he’d been signing a resources report, nodding at the pair of Kryptonians and waving them over. “Have you found anything? Have you found Brainiac?”

The two Kryptonians listened intently as the discussion was going on. Winn nodded emphatically, and grinned, “Oh yeah, Fearless Leader, sir. Our nasty friend Brainiac has been hiding in his ship behind the moon. He’s making an approach on a parabolic orbital plane, and will be coming up on us from the southern pole.”

J’Onn smiled and clapped the young human on his shoulder. “Good work, Agent Schott. Are you ladies prepared to go round two with our souvenir collector?” he asked Supergirl and Power Girl.

Just as he asked the question, Maggie came out of the bay, setting the discharge on her alien pistol. “Count me in,” she said, holstering the weapon and striding rapidly towards the rest of them. “If we’re going back up against the Electric Salad again, I’m going too. I owe him for Alex.”

Everyone got a small smile out of her rather colorful nickname for the Coluan living computer. Kara and Power Girl looked at each other, and then at J’Onn, and each smacked their fist into their palm at the same instant, saying as one, “Let’s go kick us some Coluan ass.”


	6. Chapter 6

Supergirl: Reflections of Me

Chapter 6

 

Brainiac’s ship banked and headed towards the west coast of the North American continent, as the humans called it. The city called National City, the first one he intended to collect from Earth, was dead ahead, and the skies seemed clear of any threats. He turned to his sensors and took readings of the vicinity around him for several kilometers.

_It would appear as if the Kryptonian females have decided that my attempt to take the city was foiled, and therefore I would retreat in defeat. It’s truly a shame denizens of a planet as advanced, and as collectively intelligent, as Krypton would allow themselves to be deceived by such an obvious feint,_ the Coluan thought as he piloted his vessel around the city to approach his nominal extraction point.

While he’d been behind the Earth’s moon, his ship had healed itself. The living metal of the vessel had altered itself and advanced its own self repair routines, with direction from Brainiac, of course. The alloy the ship was constructed of was a masterpiece of advanced metallurgy, native to his home world. The metal was literally alive, and could actively adapt to circumstances and events immediately. The nanotechnology that Earth was just beginning to develop was light years behind the Coluan alloy.

The computer indicated the prime location for extraction of the city had been reached and the ship had been positioned accordingly to allow a smooth removal of National City from the Earth. Brainiac smiled a faint smile. 

Though he knew that there was a considerable chance that Supergirl and Power Girl would eventually realize their mistake and come back to engage him once more, he estimated by the time they did so, it’d be too late.

X

“What’s the plan?” asked Maggie loudly, trying to talk over the sound of the rushing wind as she flew in Supergirl’s arms, with J’Onn and Power Girl on either side of them. “We can’t let this green _pendejo_ take off with the city, and do God knows what with it. Why would he want to take an entire city, anyway? What the hell good does that do him?”

Power Girl looked over at her as they flew towards the apex over the city where they knew Brainiac’s ship would be. “Dox is like a computer in a lot of ways. He collects knowledge, information, data… if its something to be learned, or something unique in some way, he preserves it by way of bottling up cities, and destroying their planets,” she said grimly, obviously not thrilled with the idea of what would happen should they fail. “He also preserves them for their culture, and as the last remaining example of that culture, it’s a twisted way of having a captive audience, I suppose.”

“He sounds like an intergalactic whack job,” replied Maggie, her face growing grim. The alien pistol she borrowed from the DEO was securely fastened in her holster, and she checked it once more, patting it against her body. The feel of the weapon was reassuring. “Wait, you said he _bottles_ the cities? Is that a Kryptonian figure of speech, or do you mean he literally puts them in a bottle, like a ship in a bottle?”

A grim smile came to Power Girl’s face, and faded almost immediately. “You called it, he is an intergalactic whack job,” she replied, the alien ship now coming into sight for all of them. “But yes, he literally bottles the cities after shrinking them down. People inside are fractions of an inch tall by the end of it. I imagine he’s got a huge collection in some sort of mother ship that his main ship probably docks with. There’s nowhere near enough room for the cities he’s taken on that thing he’s here in.”

“Well, _that’s_ a…hmmm….uh… _colorful_ back story,” Kara muttered in disbelief. Her brows knit together as they all set down on the roof of the Grayson Enterprises building again. From the rooftop, a few blocks away, you could see the National City offices of Wayne Technologies, Kord Industries, Queen Consolidated, and the newly built satellite laboratories of Palmer Technologies.

J’Onn nodded, his green skin glistening in the sunlight from the distant star sinking towards the horizon. There were still a few hours until dusk, but you knew the day was on the latter half. “It makes sense, considering from what I’ve read and been told, their race are essentially all scientists of some sort, and most of them are like living computers, with Dox’s line being amongst the most prominent of the computer like ones,” he said thoughtfully, his eyes on the Coluan craft in the distance. “So preserving knowledge and cultures, collecting samples, and cataloging them is logical, from their twisted point of view.”

The beautiful cop settled her feet on the rooftop and shrugged, drawing her weapon, and looking at the personal transmat device that Power Girl had brought back earlier. “I don’t care what he thinks he’s doing,” she said, with not a little snark in her voice. “He can preserve the record of me putting my foot up his whacked out green ass and stomping a mud hole in it. That’s a nugget of culture he’s not going to want lost to the universe.”

She tapped the device a couple of times after pointing it towards the ship just to be on the safe side. She looked up at Power Girl. “This light means I’ve locked on to the coordinates inside that thing, right? And I just move this to zap into that tin can and let him have it?” she asked the older Kryptonian.

“That’s it,” replied Power Girl, nodding as the wind that high up whipped through her hair, forcing her to pull it back out of her face. “Really simple, nothing complicated to remember.”

“Remember the plan, Maggie,” said J’Onn as he prepared himself for the next phase. “Kara and…well, Kara will assault the ship head on. While they distract him, I’ll sneak up invisibly, and phase into the ship. When I’m ready to phase, I’ll let you know on coms. Give it about thirty seconds, and then transmat in. We should be right behind his center control nexus, and can get the drop on him.”

Kara looked over at Maggie, and squeezed her shoulder gently, “You’ve got this, Maggie. You and Alex are the two strongest women I know…well, and Kara, of course. Let’s give him a taste of what it means to mess with National City.”

Maggie grinned a tight grin, and her snark was in full on mode, “Let’s go make some guacamole out of this avocado headed son of a bitch.” She pulled her pistol, and had it ready in hand, and got set to use the transmat device once she got the signal. _He’s going to damned sure remember what happens when he hurts my Alex, I’m going to make sure it’s a lesson that sticks._

X

Alex’s eyes flew open and she bolted upwards, her chest heaving with the sudden sharp and deep inhalation right as she woke up. The alarms on the medical equipment all blared annoyingly, and one of the DEO staff doctors and a nurse came running into the room, trying to keep her from moving around too much.

“Agent Danvers, please lie back down. You’re in the DEO recovery room, you’re safe,” the doctor said, attempting to be calming. Her voice was gentle and her hands barely touched the shoulders of the elite agent.

Alex took another deep breath, and felt the scratchiness of her throat, how dry it was, and how her head and ears rang like church bells. The pain stabbing through her shoulder was still there, but it was a lot more subdued than it was before. Glancing at it as she laid back slowly, the wound had been tended to, and that cold, thick and goopy healing gel that they’d been trying to develop was generously slathered in a thick layer over the wound. For all the sticky feeling, and the cold messy sensation, her shoulder felt surprisingly good, considering she’d just had a concentrated high intensity particle beam blasted through it. 

She tried to talk, but the desert that was her throat wasn’t cooperating. The nurse poured a glass of cold ice water into a cup by her bed and handed it to her. Alex took it and drank quickly from it. The cold liquid felt good on her throat, soothing over the rough spots.

“How…how long have I been out?” she asked, her voice still a bit rough sounding and raspy. She felt almost like it was trying to learn to talk all over again, even though she knew that wasn’t actually the case. It was taking a concentrated effort to get her throat working properly.

“Only a few hours,” replied the doctor, steadily checking her vitals and readings as her eyes returned to Alex’s. “You were in extreme shock when you arrived, Agent Danvers. Your shoulder was burned clean through, but the weapon had done considerable damage to the tissue it went through. The healing gel seems to be working on the wound quite well. It’s already healed tissue that would have taken a month to heal to this stage of repair. It’s far from instant, but it appears to be accelerating the healing and regenerative processes very well.”

Alex winced as she moved that arm experimentally. “Yeah, I can tell. It’s still pretty sensitive, but I can feel that the tissue has been repaired a tremendous amount, given the time of injury to now,” she said, trying to relieve the stiffness she felt in her body. 

She looked around rapidly, even so far as to lean forward to look past the doctor and nurse through the window to the operations room of the facility. “Where’s Maggie?” she asked, feeling the rising apprehension coming quickly.

The doctor glanced over her shoulder, and then back to the anxious agent, replying, “She, Director Henshaw, Supergirl and the other Kryptonian woman left almost an hour ago. You should concentrate on resting and letting yourself heal.”

Alex growled, and started scrambling to remove the leads from her body and get out of the bed. “Goddamnit!” she exclaimed, trying to swing her legs over the edge of the bed. “They’ve gone to try and take down Brainiac. I’ve got to get out there, I’ve got to catch up to them. Healing can wait, I need to go. _Now.”_

The doctor and nurse tried to stop her, to keep her in bed, but Alex was determined to get up.

X

Maggie positioned herself behind a huge air conditioning unit, which broke line of sight between her and the ship, and she hoped Dox’s technology. She glanced at the settings on the transmat device once more, and closed her eyes, holding it close to her. _Okay, Sawyer, you’ve got this. It’s as easy as falling off a speeding truck. I just hope its less painful._

As she got herself into position, the two Kryptonians rocketed off the roof, heading straight for the skull like ship hovering over the city. J’Onn had gone invisible, and she could only guess that he was flying towards the side of the ship. Within seconds, she could hear what sounded like massive explosions cracking out over the city, and loud metallic clangs, which meant the two Karas were busily and heavily assaulting the alien craft.

She ducked down closer to the roof again, just in case it was more cramped where she was going than it had been when she’d been there before only hours ago. _I’ve seen enough sci fi movies to know what happens if I’m standing up and transmat into a space that’s only three feet high. If I have to go, going out as human ketchup isn’t how I want to do it._

X

Supergirl punched the ship again, hard enough to send it rocking backwards a few feet. The loud clang that sounded when she punched it would probably have stunned a human if they’d been as close to it as she had. It was very loud. The metal alloy, whatever it was, was beginning to buckle in again, before it’d repaired itself in the time since the last assault on the ship.

She chanced a glance over at Power Girl, who was slugging the ship furiously. The look on her face was so intense, so angry, she never imagined her face would ever display that depth of negative emotions. _Whether I can imagine it or not, I’m seeing it right now,_ she thought, blasting the hull with another punch that could split mountains. _From another universe or not, she’s still me, and those emotions are written all over her face…my face. It’s kind of unsettling to literally run into yourself, but it’s entirely another thing when the other you is so much like you in so many ways, but also so very, very different. But what they say is true, your experiences shape your life as much as your nurturing, and whatever she’s experienced, which must be much different than my own experiences, has made her strong, there’s no doubt about that. Anybody who can intimidate Cat Grant, however subtly, is **strong!**_

Power Girl clenched her fist even tighter, and when it struck the ship, it struck hard, hard enough that she’d probably have cracked an oil tanker in two easily. As it was, the Coluan craft lurched and actually dipped under the assault. Like Kara, she’d been watching the younger version of herself as well, and she could see both the sisterly bond that she obviously felt, but also the disconcerted confusion that was etched across her fair features. 

_She’s wondering how I can be so different from her, almost a completely different person than she is, and still be a version of her._ She had no doubt that’s what was going through Kara’s mind. If their positions were reversed, she probably would have much the same reaction. _Once this is over, I think maybe she and I should talk. Just because things happened to me, and my life was a different life than hers, it doesn’t mean that her life is going to follow the exact same path, or even one very close to it if she makes the right choices at the right times. She’ll eventually figure out that the older we get, the further our life experiences fork from one another’s. We’re two parallel versions of the same person, but we are not the exact same person, with the same life, though our circumstances and earlier life experiences are very much similar._

 

Her fists continued to pound the ship automatically, right along with Kara’s firsts, when her super hearing heard something odd. Something that very much sounded like an energy weapon building to rapid discharge, along with the sound of weapon emplacements moving into position. Supergirl was obviously so focused on her attack that she didn’t notice the sound as anything unusual.

“Supergirl, look out!” she yelled as she lurched in mid air towards her younger counterpart. She had her hands outstretched, and her intent was to push Kara out of the way, and do it quickly, that much was obvious. Kara barely had time to register the shout, and feel Power Girl’s hands on her shoulder and arm before the world was shrouded in red.

X

J’Onn J’Onzz came silently up to the side of the ship, well out of the way of sensors that were most likely focused on the two pronged Kryptonian attack, and started concentrating. In a quiet voice, so the sensors wouldn’t register him, she spoke into the com unit, “Maggie, I’m going in n—.“ He stopped abruptly in the middle of a word as his eyes caught the flash of red. He knew what just happened, without even having to think about it. His stomach tightened as he rapidly tried to decide to whether to go into the ship, and trust that the Kryptonians could take care of themselves, or to go to their aid.

“J’Onn, what is it, what’s wrong?” asked Maggie rapidly, peeking up from her position behind the cooling unit. She’d seen the flash too, but figured it was some kind of laser that was just going to harmlessly bounce off the two Kara’s chests. “Are we green for go or not?” She definitely didn’t want to transmat in, only to find J’Onn hadn’t been able to get in along with her. She was no fool, she knew she was going to need the Martian’s help to stand a chance of taking down the green skinned alien.

J’Onn weighed the options rapidly in his mind, and with a heavy sounding voice, he replied, “We’re good to go. Supergirl and Power Girl can handle themselves. Going in now.” He shifted his concentration, and his body further altered, becoming not only invisible, but intangible as well. His body slid through the hull of the ship as if it wasn’t even there. Since he made it inside unmolested, he knew that Dox apparently must not know everything about Martian physiology and abilities, otherwise he’d have prepared for such a thing.

“Copy that,” replied Maggie, taking a couple of deep breaths, and counting to herself. Each second seemed to drag by, each an eternity unto itself, stretching in ridiculously long intervals. She knew it was just her nerves, but the feeling wasn’t something she was accustomed to feeling. Finally, she reached thirty, and taking a deep breath, she pushed the button, and disappeared in a flash of white light.

X

In a matter of seconds, Alex had brushed past the nurses and doctor in the infirmary, and was headed towards the hangar. Wincing and holding her shoulder, she called out, “Alvarez, Thompson, Okura, Watson, you’re with me. Prep an assault helicopter, skids are up in _one.”_ She was already grabbing the case of weapons she’d put together earlier, before they’d gone out the first time, just in case they needed something bigger.

The four agents blinked a couple of times, but having previous experience with their Deputy Director, and her formidable determination, they weren’t going to argue. As one, they called out, “Yes, ma’am!” and started scrambling. They knew, injured or not, Alex would probably be the first person on the helicopter, and if she wasn’t injured, she’d most likely be taking the stick herself, and tough shit if you weren’t on the craft when she took it up.

Exactly fifty three seconds later, the aircraft was airborne and headed for the ship hovering over the city. Alex anxiously bounced her leg, looking from behind the pilot and copilot through the cockpit window, and out through the open side door. They were skimming the rooftops, only maybe twenty feet above them, while the alien ship was about a hundred feet higher than they were.

As they closed in on the ship’s location, Alex could plainly see her sister and Power Girl pummeling the alien craft. The reverberations from each impact cracked across the city loudly, sounding like a huge, poorly cast bell. The Kryptonite field appeared to be gone, and she frowned. _There’s got to be something up,_ she thought, watching the pair punching the ship. _As smart as Dox is, that couldn’t have been his only countermeasure for a pair of Kryptonian powerhouses hell bent on opening his ship like a walnut. This smells like a--_

Her thought was immediately cut off as deep red light flashed, and struck Power Girl as she was shoving Kara back and away from the ship. The energy crackled around her body even as it threw her back with concussive force, arcing towards the street far below. A sinking feeling made its presence known in Alex’s gut as she watched this all play out. _Some sort of particle beam, enveloped in red solar energy!_ she thought frantically. That hue of light was something she was extremely accustomed to.

“Watson!” yelled Alex, closing the door on the right side of the helicopter with a loud clang. “Dive and bank us _hard_ to the right, and do it now!” Normally, she knew that Power Girl would just be annoyed, and maybe winded for a second if she fell to the street like that from a blast. With that blast being almost completely red solar energy, she wasn’t sure how much it weakened her, and what sort of injuries she might end up with if she struck the street in her current state. All she knew was she had to keep her from finding out.

The other agents looked at her as if she’d lost her mind, but nobody was going to challenge her on it. They knew better. Alex was already strapping herself to a support to make sure she didn’t go flying out of the helicopter along with Power Girl if the door happened to open.

Alex nodded for them to do the same, and with a grim smile asked, “Have either of you guys ever played football or baseball before? Get ready to intercept.” She knew this was dangerous, especially as close to the buildings as they were, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

The agents didn’t answer, instead they just strapped in. She glanced up to see the body of Power Girl rapidly gaining on their descent, and from the limpness of her body, it was obvious that she was very stunned. She couldn’t correct herself even if she wasn’t stunned, Alex knew. A red solar blast of that magnitude must have felt like being cold dipped back into Krypton’s solar system all at once, abruptly. It was going to have weakened her considerably, she knew, and that wasn’t good.

Watson managed to pull off the maneuver without running headlong into the Wayne Enterprises building directly in front of them. The semi conscious Kryptonian rushed towards them, and slammed through the doorway into the outstretched arms of the two DEO agents and Alex. The impact was incredible, and Alex felt like she’d been run over by a train, but Power Girl was safe. They’d managed to catch her, though she’d sustained a nasty cut from one of the seats on the back of her shoulder in the process.

Alex had only seen Kara bleed a couple of times, and it’d shocked her badly, being so used to her sister never bleeding. Seeing Power Girl, an older version of her sister, and quite frankly a more hardened and battle tested version of her sister, bleed was almost terrifying. The cut had gone pretty deep, she could see, and the tissue around it was a nasty shade of red and was bruising.

“Power Girl, are you okay? Is anything broken or badly bruised? I didn’t want to take a chance on making any injuries worse,” she said as Power Girl groaned and dabbed at the stinging pain she felt, and looked at her gloved fingers smeared with blood.

Instantly, Power Girl was fully alert again, and shakily getting to her feet. “I’ve got to go back, Kara’s in danger, extreme danger,” she said, shakily at first, but her strength was returning and the wound on her shoulder was healing, though far slower than it should have. “If she gets hit by that red solar radiation beam…”

She didn’t need to finish that sentence. Alex nodded, firmly and grimly, and turned towards the cockpit. “Watson, get us over there, _now._ Supergirl is in really big trouble and eventually Brainiac is going to anticipate her move and its over.”

Watson acknowledged the order, and Alex and Power Girl nodded at each other solemnly. Neither of them was prepared to see Kara get hurt, or worse, and more, neither of them was going to allow it. Alex checked her pistol as Power Girl straightened her cape out and pulled her gloves up.

“Dox has had his fun,” said Power Girl quietly, staring at the skull like ship with a glare just short of a heat vision burst. “Now, play time is over.”

Alex didn’t say anything as the helicopter banked and made straight for the ship. She didn’t have to, and she knew it. If anyone hurt Kara, J’Onn or Maggie, they had no idea of the hell they would release, and Power Girl and Alex would be the ones bringing it.


	7. Chapter 7

**_Supergirl: Reflections of Me_ **

**Chapter 7**

 

The chamber Maggie found herself in was even more alien than the parts of the ship she’d already seen. Brainiac was in front of her, seated in some sort of chair that was connected to all kinds of systems, looking like a metallic octopus from some fevered, drug induced hallucination.

It took her a couple of seconds to get reoriented after transporting into the Coluan ship. She had figured that she’d be a little dizzy or something after going through such an unusual process. If she were being honest with herself, she was surprised there weren’t a thousand alarms going off, or crazy robots shooting at her or something. Surely something out of a _Star Trek_ movie had some sort of intruder detection and alert system, right?

Even so, there were no changes that she could pick up on. Brainiac appeared to be concentrating on keeping the tin can she was standing in from breaking open like a coconut hit with a hammer with the two Kryptonians hell bent on getting inside the old fashioned way. The ship rocked with each punch, shaking and booming like an earthquake.

She felt, rather than saw or heard, J’Onn come through the wall and to her side. In her mind, she heard his voice. _“We have to act, and act quickly. Supergirl and Power Girl are both in terrible danger unless we can shut down his operations quickly.”_

It was as he was telling her this that the ship made an odd noise, firing some sort of weapon, and the punches to the ship abruptly stopped. She paused, listening carefully, but there wasn’t so much as a ping, let alone the crashing, thundering sounds she’d been hearing just seconds before. The two Kryptonians were no longer working the ship like a pair of Rocky Balboas any longer. That couldn’t be good.

She started to ask what happened out loud, reflexively, but J’Onn became visible and held up a warning finger to remind her to be silent. His eyes moved towards the Coluan, and listened as the ship’s AI reported, “Red solar beam deployed and was successful. A direct hit on the alternate universe Kryptonian, which flooded her system with lumens equivalent to ten times the luminosity of the Kryptonian star Rao.”

 _“Is that piece of junk saying they just hit Power Girl with red sunlight as powerful as ten of Krypton’s suns?”_ asked Maggie incredulously in her mind, so J’Onn could pick it up telepathically. She was stunned, unable to imagine just how powerful a blast that must have been. _“Something that powerful could incinerate her, couldn’t it? Oh my God, you don’t think…?”_ The detective didn’t want to contemplate just how dangerous and devastating such an attack could be, but her mind conjured images anyway.

J’Onn’s normally grim face suddenly became even grimmer. Wrinkling his brows, he nodded softly, and telepathically spoke back to her, _“Yes, I’m afraid it could. With any luck, Power Girl’s cells are so saturated with yellow solar energy she may have survived the blast, though I would imagine she would be severely hurt, possibly not far from death. If her cells had been severely depleted due to her exertions, then it’s quite possible the red solar energy had it’s desired effect.”_

Her eyes moved up towards where the Coluan sat, working his living ship, and felt her eyes burn she was so angry. Her fingers tightened around the grip of her alien pistol, and she ached to point it at him and pull the trigger. But she knew she couldn’t do that, she couldn’t just blast him, not without some sort of immediate provocation. _Oh, I’m sure he’ll give me **plenty** of provocation before this is all through._

For his part, Dox seemed completely unaware of their presence. Both J’Onn and Maggie were sure this was some sort of setup, his mighty and vaunted twelfth level intelligence toying with their miniscule, in his estimation, understanding of the basic concepts of infiltration and apprehension. Yet, both were determined to prove him wrong.

X

Kara dodged to the right, still heading in a zig zagging pattern back towards the Coluan ship, as a beam of concentrated red solar energy blasted over her shoulder close enough for her to feel the tingle of its heat on her face and shoulder. That one had come very close to sending her flying like it did Power Girl. She could feel herself weaken for a few moments, simply from having been within close proximity to it.

She arced up and around, then left, only to bank downwards almost instantly, and come back up towards the ship at an angle. The shots were still close enough that it had her very alert and aware that the next one just might strike its target. Dox was anticipating her moves better with each one she made, and she was sure he was analyzing her actions, looking for a pattern, or the type of thing she usually did. It was just a matter of time.

 _I hope Kara’s okay,_ Supergirl thought, even as she kept dodging and weaving, angling for an opening in the alien’s defenses that would allow her to strike once more. _That was an extremely powerful blast, I felt it as far away from her as I was. It looked like that helicopter may have caught her, she never fell afterwards or came back. It’s got to be Alex, it has to be. No one else I know would pull a maneuver that risky to save someone else. Part of why I love my sister._

Suddenly, like clouds clearing from sunlight after a hard rain, Supergirl saw an opening. Instantly, she headed directly for it, putting on speed quickly. She’d be on top of the ship almost instantly, and resume her attack, and make it harder for Brainiac to try and hit her with his blasts. Too late, she realized her mistake. The opening had seemed too good to be true, because it was. Brainiac had anticipated her accepting the opening he had given her, because he knew she wouldn’t consider that he wouldn’t do something so elementary. She was accustomed to fighting beings of much lower intelligence than him, and he used that acclimation against her.

She was already tensing up as soon as she realized the mistake she’d made, and poured on the speed, trying with all her might to move as fast as she could without doing damage to the city, or the planet for that matter. A sudden acceleration towards the light speed end of the velocity spectrum would have catastrophic effects on the planet if she were even able to reach that kind of speed in her present condition. Before she could dodge again, the red energy blast detonated near her, the shockwave sending her flying back out of control, and weakened and wounded. If the beam had managed to hit her, in her present condition, with her current yellow solar saturation, she’d have been blown to bits.

She tumbled through the air rapidly, barely conscious, and in intense pain. She could feel her skin burning, feeling like it was melting away like paper from a flame. Her whole body felt like she was being pummeled between two moons. When she hit, wherever she hit, she’d most likely splatter like a bug on a windshield, she thought as she heard the air rushing around her. Forming coherent thoughts was beyond her, flying to what she was sure would be her death.

The weapon on Brainiac’s ship glowed again and another blast was building up to strike her, and she wouldn’t be able to dodge. With computer like precision, Brainiac wasn’t going to miss, either. The blast would blow her apart, reduce her to atoms, and that’d be it, it’d be over. She could hear thumping sounds like the rotor of a chopper, but it was slow, and sounded like she was hearing it from under water. She thought it had to be Alex, and she wanted to wave her off, so she wouldn’t be shot by that solar weapon, but she could barely form the thought, let alone carry it out.

Just before Kara faded from consciousness, she felt herself impact hard against something solid, and it didn’t seem like it gave at all as she slipped into the bliss of being unconscious. _Maybe this is what death feels like,_ she thought as all light and sound fell away.

X

Alex held onto the rail above the door of the chopper as Watson turned it towards the direction she ordered, towards the Coluan ship. She could see her sister dodging and weaving, looking for an opening in Brainiac’s defenses that she could exploit. Her face grew even grimmer as she watched.

“This bucket was retrofitted with several of the alien weapons we have in lockup a couple of months ago, right?” she asked her team, clenching and loosening her fist reflexively. She was growing more and more tense, and angry, as she watched Kara bob and weave, looking for a way in. She hoped Kara could stay one step ahead of this guy, and she hoped Maggie and J’Onn were okay inside that alien crate.

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Okura, already gearing herself up, as were the rest of them. “We’ve got enough alien hardware to blow Marvin the Martian out there all the way out to Pluto.”

She nodded, glad to hear that. The weapons they’d installed were for just this sort of emergency, though Alex never thought it’d come into play in quite this way, and certainly not with Kara in the middle of the fight. Usually, Kara could handle pretty much anything. These weapons were mainly put in just in case Kara was otherwise occupied, or she really needed the help.

Her thoughts instantly snapped back to the here and now when she saw Kara take a detonated hit from one of those beams in proximity. “Holy shit! Supergirl’s been hit! Watson, get us there, _right goddamned now!_ Power Girl, Supergirl’s been—”

“I see her,” replied Power Girl with not just a little anger in her tone, cutting Alex off in mid sentence. She wasn’t angry at Alex, but rather at their adversary. 

With a sonic boom which caused Watson to have to make a course correction, she flew like a shot straight at the pinwheeling form of her younger self, catching her in her arms. She was unconscious and had several bruises forming, bruises and burns that all shouldn’t have been there.

As she looked up, still carrying the limp body of Supergirl, she saw the weapon flash red again, and she knew what was happening. Blue white beams of heat and energy burst from her eyes, slamming into the advancing energy of the red solar beam about fifty feet in front of her. Her heat vision was slowing the advance of the energy beam down, but Brainiac was sustaining it, and it was creeping forward, little by little.

She could feel the beam slowly forcing her heat vision back, and she knew it was only a matter of time before it would reach them both. With a loud roar of anger, she poured on the power, the light from her heat vision brightening to an almost white light. The red beam started losing ground slowly as the enraged Kryptonian flew closer.

Alex could see what was going on, and she yelled, “Does anybody have eyes on that cannon that’s firing that beam?” She figured that between them and Power Girl, Brainiac was about to have a very bad day, and that wasn’t even taking into account what Maggie and J’Onn were probably doing inside.

Alvarez, manning one of the alien weapons, nodded quickly, “Yes, ma’am. I’ve got it in sight and targeted. Just waiting on the word, Agent Danvers.” Like most of the DEO agents, Supergirl had saved him several times. Seeing this happening to her, and seeing this happen to the city, incensed him and made him ready to do something to strike back.

“Then we’re going in, weapons hot. When we’re in range and able to help shield Supergirl and Power Girl, give it hell. Just target the cannon, and the hull nearby it. Burn it down,” Alex said tightly. She brushed her hair back from her face, and felt the helicopter bank and push forward.

X

The shrill sounds of the beam generator charging up and firing were loud inside the ship where J’Onn and Maggie were. Maggie nodded at J’Onn and was getting ready to get into position and make her move, the Martian could see.

Before either of them could move, or think anything to one another, Brainiac’s voice rang out in the chamber. “So, the Martian and a human have infiltrated my vessel. Quite resourceful, especially for creatures of such limited intelligence. I must commend you on your ingenuity and unpredictability.”

As Brainiac turned in his chair to face them, Maggie caught sight of a panel near her that apparently Brainiac had ignored, or was it that it was all part of his plan from the beginning? The message on the panel said that the intruder detection systems were offline. She couldn’t tell from looking at it if it was due to damage, or simply being shut off, or not. She was actually surprised that the message was in English, rather than Coluan.

The green skinned alien rose from his central seat, metal components of his suit shifting and making whirring sounds. A slow, cold smile came across his face. “Its not often that I indulge myself, and ‘get my hands dirty’ as you humans call it, but this will be an enjoyable experience.” Neither Maggie nor J’Onn had any doubts about the hums they were hearing being weapons, both on Dox, and in the ship, arming up and coming to bear on them. 

“Maggie, get behind me!” yelled J’Onn as he leaped forward, putting himself between Maggie and Brainiac. His body hardened to almost diamond like strength. The beams bounced off his chest that discharged from Brainiac’s hand weapon.

Meanwhile, Maggie rolled into a flanking position and drew the alien pistol, firing it at Brainiac’s head. The alien managed to not get shot in the head, but he did take one to the shoulder in amidst a barrage from Maggie at the same time J’Onn was pummeling him with devastating punches.

Just as Maggie was firing off a new volley, the ship rolled and lurched hard in the air, and suddenly, it sounded as if the very center of the craft was being torn open like a bag of chips. The ship rocked hard, and a loud clanging boom was heard, knocking the three of them to the floor.

X

Blasts of light lanced from the helicopter towards the cannon on the ship ahead of them. Hit after hit landed, and after a dozen or so, the cannon lurched and exploded as its fragments fell to the streets below.

Supergirl stirred in Power Girl’s arms and opened her eyes. “Kara? Where am I? What happened? I feel like I’ve been run over by a Khund cruiser,” she said, stretching aching limbs, trying to understand what was happening. She shook enough of the grogginess away that she realized Power Girl was carrying her.

“You were hit by a detonated red solar beam, and the backwash slammed you back through the air, and into unconsciousness. How are you feeling? Think you could do some ass kicking?” replied Power Girl, loosening her grip on her younger self. She kept close just in case, but Supergirl seemed to be quickly recovering now that the worst of it was gone.

Supergirl smiled slowly, flying under her own power. “If its Brainiac’s ass we’re kicking, definitely,” she answered. Though she was far less than a hundred percent, she felt strong enough to do this at least. She wanted to be sure he knew he’d made a huge mistake coming to Earth.

There was a loud explosion as the chopper’s weapons obliterated the cannon, mostly by catching it in mid discharge, setting that energy free. It had to go somewhere. Once the cannon exploded, it left a rift in the hull of the ship. Alex pointed to it, yelling, “Watson, get me over to that split, now! I’m going in!”

Once more, they knew there was no arguing with the Deputy Director. Once she’d made her mind up, it was made up and wasn’t changing anytime soon. The chopper angled and flew towards the alien craft, which was belching dark smoke, and a fire was visible on one of the huge now exposed patches.

The aircraft quickly did a fly by of the ship, and Alex, geared to the teeth, jumped down into the hole in the ship, landing with her weapon at the ready. The smoke was thick and harsh, and it made Alex start coughing but she didn’t stop to notice. She was intent on doing some serious harm to Brainiac for everything he’d done.

Supergirl saw her go in, and she looked up at Power Girl. There wasn’t any need for words. Power Girl could see in her eyes what she was thinking, it was the same thing she’d be thinking if she’d had a sister, and this sort of thing was happening to her. The older Kryptonian nodded softly, and it was decided.

With a sudden burst of speed, and two loud roars, the two Kryptonians flew like a shot across the distance between them and flew straight for the ship. The roars grew louder as they both struck the hull with both fists, and with as much force generated as they possibly could. Their fists struck, and the ship split even wider, with explosions and violent sparks of electrical energy dancing around.

The noise was deafening, and it rang out across the city, but they’d done it, they’d managed to damage the ship in such a way that it was still able to suspend itself over the city, but it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The pair finally stopped after they’d gone several hundred yards from it, before turning and watching a moment.

X

Alex fired a searing blast at Brainiac, barely missing him as he dodged aside, only to be struck first by J’Onn’s fist, and then by the weapon Maggie was firing. The three pronged attack was relentless, wearing him down. Even using his living ship, he was fighting a losing battle, especially after the Kryptonians came in to keep the fight between Brainiac and the others.

Minutes ticked by, and blow after blow was delivered, some striking, some missing, and the tide turned at least twice, but finally, at long last, Brainiac lay in his chair, his chest smoking, barely able to move. J’Onn cuffed him, the power cuffs dampening his telepathic abilities and any others he might have.

J’Onn hauled him to his feet, and Alex walked up to him, the anger just barely held in check. Maggie, J’Onn, Supergirl and Power Girl couldn’t help wondering what was about to happen.

“You thought you could just waltz up to our planet, decide which cities you want to shrink down and make your personal little doll houses, then shrink them and put them in your collection? I’d say you and that twelfth level intelligence made a twelfth level mistake,” she said, with not a little growl in her voice.

Suddenly, her fist flew upwards, and struck the Coluan hard in the mouth, turning his head fully sideways with the force of the impact. “That’s for hurting my sisters. You almost killed them. The key word being ‘almost.’ You should learn to be as thorough as you are arrogant. Now, you’re going to rot in a DEO cell like a head of cabbage left too long out of the refrigerator.”

Just as quickly, she backhanded Dox hard across the face with the back of her fist, this time drawing a gout of greenish black blood from his mouth, which ran out onto the floor. “And that was for trying to hurt my baby and my friend. See if your twelfth level intellect can calculate for you how many footprints you’re going to have in your ass if you ever try something like this again.”

Alex and Maggie came into each other’s arms, kissing deeply, like it was the first time they’d kissed in a century. They held onto one another as Brainiac was being prepped for transport back to the DEO. After they parted, she drew J’Onn in for a hug as well. She wasn’t finished, though.

Without warning, she grabbed Kara fiercely and made Kara thankful she was Kryptonian, otherwise she might have broken the Girl of Steel’s ribs. “You had me worried sick out there. All of you did. I’m just glad you’re safe.”

Before she’d even finished her sentence, she grabbed Power Girl and gave her a huge, tight, tired hug. Letting go, she looked at all of them before speaking, “You had me worried too. I’ve got two sisters now, and I don’t plan on losing either of you.

“All of you are my family. _El mayarah._ Stronger together. We just proved that, here, today, fighting against Brainiac. This is why Brainiac lost. Because we’re stronger together, and he’s alone. Unless you count his ego as another person. Its certainly big enough to qualify as its own lifeform.” 

She ran her hand back through her hair, and shook her head. “I’m sorry if I’m being cheesy and sappy. We just faced a major threat, not only to National City, but to the world, had a lot of crazy stuff happening, and we pulled together and put him out of commission. I’m not used to saying such things, but remember you are my family, and I would go as far for any of you as I go for Supergirl, and I would do as much for any of you as I do for her.”

There were some light hearted chuckles going around, and Maggie came up and put her arm around Alex. “Babe, I don’t know what happens to get you all mushy and stuff like this, but honestly…I like it. It’s nice to love someone that loves you back.”

Supergirl smiled and turned towards her older doppelganger. “It looks like its official, you’re part of the family now. Even if we are a bit strange and, umm, diverse. Alex wasn’t kidding though, you need to know that about her. You’re not only my sister, in a way, but you’re hers now too. Be prepared to have her mother hen you.”

The lot of them finally got Brainiac settled on the chopper, and Alex took him back with her team to the DEO. Moments later, Power Girl and Supergirl touched down in the DEO headquarters. Dox was being led to his cell, and everyone seemed happy for a good job done.

“It looks like we accomplished our mission,” said Power Girl, looking out over the city from the balcony that Kara often went to stand on when she needed to think. “Dox has been eliminated as a threat, at least for now. And I was wondering…” She trailed off thoughtfully, the words hanging in the air.

Kara wrinkled her brows a bit, and tilted her head, “Wondering what?” She couldn’t tell why the other Kara was hesitant. Was she afraid of something? Supergirl highly doubted Power Girl was afraid of anything, or anyone. Was it something she was embarrassed about?

Power Girl smiled and nodded towards the city. “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to practice being sisters for a while, and talk. We can do that with Alex and Maggie too, after a while, but I think you and I should talk for a bit, alone. Nothing bad or anything. I just think it’ll be good for both of us. That and your bosses may stay off your case so much about everything.”

Kara considered Power Girl’s words and nodded as she got into her street clothes at super speed, which Power Girl also did. “Now I’d love that, I think it’s a great idea. I’m ready when you are,” she said, bubbling a bit with excitement.

The pair finished up changing, and they went to the elevator, going down to the city and out heading for food first. Fighting aliens hell bent on stealing cities and getting slapped around with Kryptonite fields and red solar energy rays built up an appetite.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Supergirl: Reflections of Me_ **

**Chapter 8**

 

The area around where the epic battle between Brainiac and the combined forces of Supergirl, Power Girl, the DEO and Maggie was littered with broken pieces of the ship and buildings. Several cars had gotten flattened by the falling debris, a few buildings had huge chunks taken out of them as if some sci fi monster had gotten hungry and taken a bite as it walked along, and other signs of destruction from the battle. Thankfully, the casualties were limited to fairly minor injuries, a couple of broken bones, and lots of scrapes and abrasions, but no serious injuries or fatalities had been reported. The DEO had started the cleanup, assisting the city workers in clearing as much as the debris as possible.

The ship itself, like Brainiac, had been taken back to the DEO to be processed and contained. No one doubted for a moment that when the living ship had managed to repair itself, it would have come for Brainiac, and therefore it was contained as securely as its maker. Despite everything that had happened, the citizens appeared thankful, grateful, and appreciative of what the Kryptonians and the DEO had done for the city…even if they had no idea that the DEO even existed. It was just some unknown three letter acronym agency as far as any of them knew, or were even concerned. The threat was over, they were alive, and the city was once more saved from catastrophic danger by National City’s guardian angels.

The two Karas had slipped away unseen by the populace at large, and made their way across the city to an area that hadn’t been part of the war zone. They walked along the street, seeming for all the world like two sisters going to dinner, chatting and laughing, oblivious to the chaos on the other side of the city. Though that was far from the case, no one observing them knew any different.

The pair had discovered that they had more similarities than they had originally thought, as they both suggested stopping for pot stickers, and then ordering several pizzas after they had made it to Kara’s apartment. Then of course were the crullers that were for dessert, along with copious amounts of ice cream of varied flavors practically bursting from the freezer.

After paying the pizza delivery guy, they both sat down in what passed for Kara’s living room, with Kara on the overstuffed, comfortable couch, and the older Kara sitting in the matching chair on the other side of the coffee table. Each grabbed a pot sticker, a couple of slices of pizza, and chewed for a moment before Kara bubbled around half a mouthful of food, “Wow…I never would have thought that we’d like so many of the same things. It’s…well, honestly, it’s incredible, at least to me.” She stuffed another pot sticker into her mouth and chewed rapidly.

Karen, as she’d told Kara and everyone else to call her so there would be far fewer slip ups, arched a brow and laughed, a fully exuberant laugh. “What’s so surprising? I mean, after all, you are me and I am you, in an odd sort of way.” She bit off a piece of pizza and chewed thoughtfully a few times before continuing, “But then again, I see your point. Just as our life experiences slowly became different the more time we each spent on our respective Earths, its possible that our tastes and sense of aesthetics might have diverged as well.”

Kara nodded rapidly in agreement and finally closed the pizza box in front of her, and sipped from her glass. She was practically bursting with excitement and curiosity about her doppelganger from another universe. “So, your Krypton was on the verge of destruction, and your aunt and uncle had decided to send your baby cousin to Earth, and your parents sent you to look after him, as it happened to me?” So far, their lives seemed for all intents and purposes to have followed the exact same paths.

Karen also closed her box and pushed it a bit away, and took a drink. “Yes,” she answered, adjusting her position to become more comfortable. “That’s exactly how it started, and like you, my pod got knocked off course. Once we were clear of Krypton’s system and I had verified our coordinates and destination were locked into our navigational computers, I was supposed to activate our pods’ suspended animation protocols.” She paused a moment, and though she was looking at Kara, the younger woman was sure she was replaying the incident in her mind.

“I was supposed to do the exact same thing,” Kara said, recalling her own journey from Krypton, before she was knocked off course and slipped into the Phantom Zone. Her voice grew quiet and she glanced up at the older woman’s eyes, feeling her eyes well up a bit. “Did…did you see your Krypton explode? Or were you fortunate enough to be out of range by the time it happened?”

The older Kryptonian’s eyes seemed a bit shinier as she paused a moment before answering. “Yes, I saw my Krypton die. It’s a sight I’ll never forget. Kal L’s pod had been launched several minutes earlier, and it was programmed to get clear of the system, and then slow down so our computers could link and we’d fly to Earth together. As I approached the orbit of our moon Wegthor, seconds after leaving my parents’ launch pad, I got a very ‘good’ view of my home when it exploded.

“The shock wave produced by the explosion buffeted my pod, and threw me far off course. The shock also caused the pod’s automatic emergency systems to kick in, thus inducing the suspended animation automatically, instead of from my manual input.” She paused for a moment, letting the memory wash through her memory, hoping it would fade at least a little before finishing, “So, in cryogenic sleep, I floated around space for years while the pod computer searched for my intended course, in order to resume its preprogrammed flight plan. Once the computer was finally able to triangulate and correlate the path, it turned the suspended animation mode off, and I landed on Earth some time later. I didn’t know I’d been adrift for years at that time, and was expecting to have made planetfall a short time after Kal L’s pod had landed. Instead, I was discovered by my cousin, only he was a full grown man and had been living on Earth for decades.”

The air in the room grew still and silent again for several moments before Kara opened the box and offered Karen a cruller and bit into one herself. She was nodding thoughtfully, “That’s almost exactly what happened to me. When the shockwave knocked me off course, and the computer initialized the suspended animation sequence, I ended up somehow or another crossing dimensions into the Phantom Zone, where I slept for twenty four years. My pod reactivated for some reason and found a path free of the Zone, and I unknowingly dragged Fort Rozz out with me.”

The two of them sat in silence for a few more moments, each considering the other’s experience with rocketing away from home, with only one crucial detail being different, the beginning of the forks in their separate lives. Obviously, more and more differences occurred after each of them arrived on their respective Earths, which led to the two very similar, yet very different, people they were today. It was quite apparent that Karen’s arrival on Earth Two happened around ten years earlier than her own, since there was a discernible age difference between them.

“I’m so sorry,” Kara apologized after the silence lingered a bit beyond what felt comfortable to her. “I didn’t mean to bring the pain that comes with those memories back. I was just so curious as to how different our journeys may have been that I didn’t realize how much it’d hurt both of us. We’re so much alike, but so different, I guess I can’t help but want to know what’s different, other than the obvious, or what experiences shaped who you are that make you so different from me.”

Karen smiled gently, probably the softest Kara had seen her face since they met, and shook her head. “It’s okay, really, Kara,” she replied, the images of Krypton Two’s destruction beginning to fade from her mental eye finally. “I’m curious too. I remember being a lot like you are now, a _lot_ like you. Bubbly, optimistic, hopeful, almost innocent in a lot of ways. I’m still hopeful and such, I suppose, but Kal L didn’t find me until after I’d been on Earth for a while. I was in an orphanage. Luckily, my parents had managed to get language information about the different nations of Earth, so I learned several of these as I flew towards Earth. Thankfully, English was one of them. Mother said that the language files came from old style radio transmissions made on Earth that finally got close enough to Krypton that they could pick them up and record them, and process them through our computer.”

She paused, and took a drink of her soda, letting it bubble around in her mouth a moment, and then continued, “It was a way to pass the time, at least. When I landed, I wasn’t aware that I was gaining powers the longer I was there, so I set about trying to find appropriate clothing, and I was discovered by a young couple that took me in and kept me safe for a while, believing the story I told about my family all dying in a horrendous vehicle accident, and eventually I went to the orphanage. I’d heard about this Superman that everyone was talking about on their televisions and stuff, but it never dawned on me that this being was Kal L. Kal L shouldn’t have been more than a year old by the time we reached Earth.”

“My experience was pretty close to that, except Kal El found me right after I landed, and he taught me English, and then he took me to the Danvers’ home, and they said they’d look after me,” Kara spoke softly. The corners of her lips twitched upwards in a soft, somewhat sad smile. “They were scientists that had helped Kal learn about and understand his own powers when he was a young man, and he hoped they could do the same for me. Needless to say, I was really shocked when this grown man, bearing the El family crest on his chest, pulled the hatch of my pod off and helped me out of it.”

Kara picked at a piece of pizza, taking bits and pieces of toppings off the top, then looked up at Karen. “So they told everyone they adopted me, after my parents died in a terrible fire, as you heard earlier in Cat’s office, and I got a wonderful and loving family, but I was homesick, of course, and I never really fit in. Even Alex seemed to hate me when I first went to live with them. She resented me coming into their lives and receiving so much attention and leeway, when before, it was just Jeremiah, Eliza, and her.”

Karen’s brows rose dramatically at that, and tilted her head, “She sure doesn’t act as if she resents you now. If I didn’t know better, I myself would believe the two of you were actual sisters, adopted or otherwise. Alex is _fiercely_ protective over you, I saw that first hand, and I doubt very seriously she’d let anyone stand in her way of keeping you safe, super powered or not.”

Kara let out a barely audible and short laugh, even causing Karen’s super hearing to amp up in order to hear it. She ran her hand through her long blonde locks, and looked up again, “It didn’t help any that her parents were constantly riding her about protecting me, keeping me safe, making sure I didn’t reveal my secret and such. I’d have hated me too, I think, if I’d been in her place. But now? Alex is my anchor, my sister, one of the most important people in my life, and I love her dearly, and I believe…no, I _know_ in my heart that she feels the same way about me.”

“I know she does too, Kara. It’s not often that you see a human who will _truly_ stand in the face of an enemy that could wipe her from existence with barely a thought, and doesn’t back down, all in the name of a loved one,” said Karen, shifting her position in the chair. “Alex would chase anyone that hurt you from Starhaven to Rann to Thanagar to Winath, on foot if that were possible, to take someone down that harmed her sister. I can see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice, and today, I saw it in her actions. That’s one of the places where your life and mine is very different, and it goes on from there.”

Kara nodded again, and she curled her legs up until she could rest her chin on her knee. She fidgeted with the corner of the couch cushion, and glanced up at Karen several times, and swallowed heavily before asking, “Can I…is it okay if I ask…I mean, if it’s none of my business, I understand but I feel like I need to understand why you…how you got to the place in your life now, mentally and emotionally, that you’re in now?” Her voice had faded bit by bit as she asked, and she was clearly nervous.

Karen studied her a moment, her expression unreadable, even by Kara, who shared her face and expressions, then answered, “Of course you can ask, and believe me, if I felt it was none of your business, I’d damned sure tell you it wasn’t.” At Kara’s expression, her face and voice softened, “You want to know why I’m brusque, often hard lined, and over assertive, and why when handling problems like Brainiac, I’m so aggressive, and so angry, right?”

Feeling like she’d just insulted the older Kryptonian, she looked down again, adjusting her glasses and nodded softly, her voice quiet, “Yeah. I don’t mean anything by it, it’s just…it’s just that that’s not something I’d normally do. I need to know what would, and could, change me until I find myself feeling the same way. I don’t mean that there’s anything wrong with it, I’m more than sure you have perfectly good reasons why you gradually moved to where you are now, emotionally. I just…”

“You just want to know what could change you, so you can fight to keep your outlook as it is right now, you mean?” asked Karen, but without any hard edge to her voice. It was surprisingly soft, and empathetic, and more, her voice was understanding. Her younger self nodded, clearly ashamed of even having thought such a thing, let alone asked it.

Karen uncurled her own legs, and moved to sit by Kara on the couch. Rather than reach out and lift Kara’s eyes to her, she let her look up into her eyes by herself before she said, “I’m not the sunniest person you’ll ever meet, I know that. I think you do too by now. Even though we’re two different versions of the same person, the key word there is different. Sure, there’s differences in our lives, differences that started out small and eventually became universes apart from your life to mine. More than that, more than experiences, there’s the beliefs that I hold, that you hold, and though our worlds were similar, they weren’t the same, so we aren’t exactly the same either.”

Kara looked as if she were about to speak, but Karen held up a hand lightly, and let that sink in before going on, “But yes, our experiences being different is the main thing, and how we react and respond to those experiences. I grew up in Kal’s shadow, always the ‘younger’ cousin, even though I was actually a teenager when he was born, always having to live up to his example, or at least it felt like I was expected to.” 

She shifted, turning more towards Kara, and hesitated, but finally took Kara’s hands into her own, continuing, “I felt like if I was going to be taken seriously, I had to completely and totally become my own person, with my own identity, beyond Superman’s cousin. That’s why I’m called Power Girl, why my suit is dramatically different than his, why I don’t wear our House sigil on my chest, and why I never in any way let someone see me as anything other than Power Girl, instead of ‘that super powered girl that’s Superman’s cousin.’ I had to completely break the mold, and forge my own. Then, of course, there’s the anti feminism, prejudice towards women, the idea that we’re the ‘weaker sex,’ and all that bullshit. When people, be it civilians or adversaries, would try to pin any of that on me like a label, it’d make me angry, and I’d make damned sure they knew the difference.”

Kara took all Karen said in, and let it spin around in her head a couple of moments. She so very much admired Karen, and would never want to offend her. Despite what she had said, Kara felt like she was a good role model, but at the same time, she couldn’t be the same Kara that Karen had become, for whatever the reasons were. Her views and ways were simply too different from hers, at least here and now they were.

“I wish I had your strength a lot of the time, your inner strength, the strength of self that you have. You’re always so sure of what you need to do, confident in your decisions and beliefs, so proactive. It’s a world where hope and optimism are rare commodities, and I guess, if I’m being honest, that maybe I am naïve to think that the world can be as bright and earnest as I would like it to be. Maybe it’s stupid, but I really do want to make this world a better, and safer, place. I want to make it more like I see it, and by being sunny, as you called it, maybe it could influence someone else to be a little sunnier too?” Kara practically whispered. She knew that this whole talk thing was supposed to be fun, and let them bond some, to really seem to be sisters to other people who didn’t know better. Yet, she felt as if she had dragged it down into an experience that Karen probably couldn’t wait to get away from.

Karen’s hands came up to cup her face, and she let their gazes lock for a few seconds, and then shook her head. “It’s _not_ stupid, Kara. Never, never, _ever_ think that hope, optimism and goodness are stupid. Nor are you naïve, ‘little sister.’ Far from it. I wish I could be like you, I wish I could put aside all the terseness and simmering anger, and let the light inside me shine like yours does. You don’t _have_ to be like me, your experiences you have yet to deal with don’t have to _make_ you like me. I _want_ you to stay as you are, the living, breathing, smiling personification of hope, purity, optimism, and goodness. And for the record, no, I’m not being sarcastic or making fun of you. I mean every word I’m saying to you.”

There was no doubt in Kara’s mind that Karen wasn’t lying, or exaggerating, or anything else of that nature. She could see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice, and it was a living, breathing thing, so tangible she could reach out and touch it. “I’m not normally this morose,” said Kara, pushing her glasses back up her nose as Karen released her face. “I guess that meeting you, seeing you in action, talking to you, getting to know you, I just sort of felt like I didn’t measure up somehow. I mean, you _are_ me, and you’re definitely more experienced than I am, and older, wiser, and have so much I could learn from you. I don’t know why I feel deflated, kind of, like I’m reaching for something my arm will never be long enough to let me grasp.”

Karen’s back straightened, and she put her hands on her thighs, fixing Kara with a penetrating look. “You feel like you don’t measure up? Like you don’t measure up to _me_? I’m older, sure, and I’ve been doing this longer, yes, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m wiser than you. I can learn just as much, if not more, from you than you can from me.” 

She grabbed a hold of Kara’s arm and gently, but firmly, pulled her to her feet and led her to the window, and they both looked out over the city for a moment. “Look out there,” she said, glancing sidelong at Kara. “That’s the world, not just the city, but the world, a world made _better_ because Kara Zor El lives in it, and shows them how to provide kindness, hope, comfort, safety, protection, optimism, and you know what? Whether they want to admit it or not, those seven billion plus people out there _know_ without the slightest doubt that there’s another way, a _better_ way to live and to treat each other. _Your_ way.”

She felt the wind whip past them both, bringing a coolness to stave off the oppressive summer heat as she turned more towards Kara. “I saw the photo of you talking down those robbers in that store, convincing them to give in to their better angels, and think about what they were doing, when you temporarily lost your powers. I heard a broadcast of that speech you gave to snap the citizens of National City out of the influence of Myriad that your aunt and uncle had unleashed on the city. I saw Kal El fall under its influence, I saw _Superman_ fall under its influence, when you _didn’t_. Do you know why you didn’t, why you were able to do these things that everybody around you probably told you that you couldn’t do, that you would never convince these people to believe in such a thing? You did it because instead of fighting with your fists, you fought with your heart. That heart right there that holds all that hope, all that cheery optimism, all that supreme confidence that not only can things be better, but that they _will_ be better. You did it because you never gave up on them, you believed in them, even when they probably didn’t, and because of that, they believed in _you._ And you’re honestly thinking you don’t measure up to me in some way?”

The younger Kryptonian’s face turned a rather lovely shade of red, and her shoulders rose, while she half laughed, a sound tinged with embarrassment. “Well, when you put it like _that_ …” she said, almost bashfully. “You seriously saw that, listened to that? You think it was the best way to handle those things?”

“Hell yeah, I put it like that,” replied Karen with a laugh as she led them back into the apartment. “Yes, I saw that, I listened to that, and no, I don’t think it was the best way to handle those things. I _know_ it was the best way to handle them. If it had been me, I’d probably have given those guys a few bruises and let the police haul them off, and I’d most likely still be trying to figure out a way to stop Myriad. So, don’t worry about whether or not you measure up to me. Enjoy me struggling, trying to figure out how I’m going to measure up to you.”

The two Kryptonians shared a laugh, and even a tight hug before they separated again. Karen glanced at the half eaten pizzas and pot stickers, and then around the apartment. Raising a hand, she made a waving motion to indicate the apartment. “So, what do you and Alex do when she comes over, and you spend sister time together?”

The smile on Kara’s face was growing little by little as she shrugged. “Normally, we stuff our faces with pizza, pot stickers, and whatever while watching movies or a TV show, we laugh, cut up, cry on each other’s shoulder, or whatever we need to do. Then we each grab a tub of ice cream, eat some, switch, and then eat some more. We sit on the couch and just sort of snuggle up with each other the whole time.”

Karen’s blue eyes sparkled a little with the bright moonlight pouring in through the large windows and a wry smile slowly worked its way onto her lips. “Well, then, we’d better get busy…Sis. Let’s find us something to watch, eat like Cookie Monster, and I’ll race you for that tub of Moose Tracks you’ve got in there,” she said, laughing as well as letting that rare smile come out.

Kara had already turned the TV on and had switched to the show she and Alex often watched together. At Karen’s challenge, she giggled and put her hair up in a tight ponytail. “Oh, you’re _so_ on, Sis,” she exclaimed, jumping over the back of the couch and assuming the snuggle position, and though a bit uncertainly at first, Karen joined her.

_This is amazing,_ thought Kara as they both chewed rapidly. _I may have had a hell of a fight today, but boy were the rewards worth it. I guess there is something to be said for hope after all. I gained not only a new ally, but a new sister, and learned about myself from myself, which is something I’m not even going to try and make sense out of. I want that Moose Tracks tub!_

X X X X X X

**AN -** This turned out to be shorter than I expected, but I hope it was an enjoyable read! Thank you so much for everyone that read it, that left reviews, or whatever. I hope I can continue to bring you enjoyable stories and now I can try and figure out what my next fic is going to be! Thank you!


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